2001journey

Adelaide to Perth via Kalgoorlie Adelaide to Perth via Kalgoorlie on the India-Pacific Rail I left on Tuesday evening, South Australia time from Adelaide and arrived in Perth this morning at 9:30 am Western Australia time (1 1/2 hours different). Northern Australian and Southern Australia are 1/2 different from Victoria, Queensland, ACT and New South Wales. I boarded the train with fantasies of playing the role of Hercule Poirot in a reenactment of Agatha Christie type murder on the India-Pacific Line. Oh well. It was a short-lived fantasy. The characters were interesting: Wayne-my personal conductor, John and Anthony-condutors for other cars, Zane-the chief and Dave Train Manager, who made all the announcements (with a little flavor of the Peter Principle). The scenery from Adelaide until the next morning was pitch black with occasional street lights in the black and stars above with a 1/4 moon (bowl). In the morning we were awakened to slight rolling hills wi...

Sensory Smorgasboard in Adelaide Bright beautiful sky throughout the morning in Adelaide. The weather station's prediction of 70% rain looks like it may come true now. Today has been a sensory smorgasboard: sights, smells, tastes, textures, sounds, feelings. Internetted for awhile first thing. Then off to wander the city some more in new places. Jumped on the FREE busses for tourists from Victoria Square into the city and to the Festival Center/Convention/Auditorium Center. Jumped on a bus and headed out of the city with a "Day Pass". Road out several kms to Para Hills, suburb. Saw many different neighborhoods. Mostly brick, one story bungaloes of varied sizes. They build right to the narrow site lines with 4-6 ft tall metal fences. Passed the Adelaide Super Dome (looked like a crustacean or insect shell. Got off and found a bus going in another direction. Fortunately he was headed back into Adelaide another direction. The commercial areas rem...

Alice Springs & Ayers Rock, Uluru Adelaide to Alice Springs to Ayers Rock (Uluru) and back to Ayers Rock in one day. It wasn't what I had planned to do yesterday but that is what happened. When I arrived in Ulara, town and area near Uluru (the Rock) I discovered that no rooms were available at any price: 20 to a room dorms at $30 Aus up to $535 AU for resort rooms. So I got my airplane ticket changed to fly back to Alice Springs, at not charge. That is the 5th or 6th flight I have changed with New Zealand Air and its associated firms at NO CHARGE at all and was helped each time with great big smiles on the employees faces along with great suggestions when I was creating problems for myself. Onto a tour size bus off to the Sails Resort ($500+ range) to catch a van to the Rock. Met Maureen (white name) an aboriginal artist. I spoke with her in the lobby of the hotel while she was painting, photographed her (mostly the no photographing is related to spiritu...

Beauty of Nature Hobart & Adelaide Yesterday morning I walked down to the bay from my artist' hosts home to the bay at the end of their street to then walked for a couple miles along the water's edge to a hidden beach only known to the locals. The beauty of the sand, the changing lighting in the sky as the sun rose behind me: white, gray, black, to red, pink, yellow and orange. The sound of the waves break on the rocks. The shells, the sea weed, the 6 to 12 pointed star fish washed up on the shore. These were the images that began my day yesterday. This afternoon my Adelaide hosts took me on a wine country tour to Penfolds winery and the Adelaide Hills Wine country where we received a personal one on one two hour presentation on wine: grapes, locations, countries, soils, length of time to produce, the bottle shapes, the storage etc. all answers to my never ending questions as we tasted one wine after another from white to red from dry to sweet. T...

Adelaide Hello Friends I arrived in Adelaide in South Australia, fourth Aussie state so far yesterday at noon. My hosts, Pat and Bob Youngston picked me up at the airport, they were looking for a lost looking American. I wasn't exactly lost just not sure. I am in the cafe section of Adelaide. Lots of 20, 30 something folk: motorcycles, cafes, lots of people strolling. Up the road is the Rendle Mall, closed street where many, many other people are strolling on a Saturday. Adelaide is a garden city. Canberra is well designed, planned and formally dramatic. Adelaide is absolutely beautiful. A huge garden belt surrounds the main city with golf courses, parks, the river, paths, soccer, rugby fields. In a few minutes I am meeting Pat and Bob to drive off to the wine distrinct out in the country. The morning was beautifully sunny now it is clouding over. We had dinner with friends of their's and a student of Bob's from 17 years ago. It was great fu...

Tasmania - Hobart in the Winter I arrived yesterday early in the morning to be met by two women holding up a sign with my name on it. I was expecting my host Helen, a fantastic potterer and instead it was Kitty and her friend Jolene. They immediately drove me to 7 Mile Beach, a beautiful sandy beach that very few people know about, so Kitty said. Only problem it is on all the maps and a bus line ends right at one of the natural entrances to it. Then they drove me to Mount Wellington to view the true beauty of southern Tasmania and Hobart. Only problem that time was that the road was closed due to snow and there was a very huge rain cloud covering the entire mountain top. Off to a public house (pub) and some great discussion about mutual friends, creativity and truly living life in our own manner. We even talked about Andre and Judy (hello from Kitty). Then onto the city to drop off my things and meet up with Helen and Andre for lunch. They both are excellent po...

Canberra Mountains to Melbourne Back to the big cities of Australia I left a 5-story, highly contemporary, beautifully decorated, well stocked and wine racked, apartment in Canberra to bus to the Snowy Mountains, "Man from Snowy River", territory in Victoria near the border of New South Wales. My coach captain (bus driver) was suppose to drop me off at the "submarine", a full-size black WWII submarine submerged in the grass to the normal sailing water line. Instead he took me to the Holbrook Main Bus Station: a glass and metal bus stop about the size of a phone booth. We're talking small town Australia. I trudged back to the submarine about 1 mile away dropped my load as I arrived at the submarine  my friends Neil and Barbara drove up. Timing. It's all timing when you travel. Off to the mountains we drove where we spent the weekend traveling around their mile square mountain land and various other great sites in the area of the Murra...

Canberra a designed capital Started out the day in a leisurely way. A little toast and tea. Some email-ing. A phone call into the past to the USA to my daughter. A phone call to Aussie friends in Snowy mountains and others to professional speakers in Sydney. Then off to explore Canberra. Where my hosts beautiful townhouse is located is in a very well landscaped neighborhood near one of the government areas. I walked towards the new Parliament Building, a very dramatic building, designed by an American architectural firm chosen through a competition in the 1980s as was the master planner for the creation of Canberra back in 1913, a young architect who was a lead designer with Frank Lloyd Wright in Chicago at the time, Walter Burley Griffin. The drawings for his submittal were beautifully drawn by his wife Marion Mahoney, another architectural designer who worked for FLLW. I came across the circular major road, crossed it and began to head towards one of the main...

Sunrise in Sydney Sundown in Canberra I woke up this morning in the northern suburbs on Sydney and tonight I am going to sleep in a few minutes in Canberra, the national capital of Australia, a designed city, designed by American architect, Walter Burley Griffin and his wife, Marilyn Mahoney. Both were young designers with Frank Lloyd Wright at Talesin when WBG entered the international competition for the design of Canberra many years ago and won. Canberra is a completely park and nature filled city. Just a short walk to a local grocery store with my host Chris showed me examples of the beautiful use of trees, shrubs, plants and flowers and the integrated architecture. This morning Ian and I went to the Kaoloa Park (a private zoo). I didn't make it to the Sydney Zoo yesterday with the mobs of people overflowing the city at every seam and the off and on again downpours of rain that occurred from 9:30 am on until 4:30 pm. We petted Kaoloas, Kangaroos, Walla...

Sydney, the forgotten chapter Hello Wanderings Readers How did you enjoy the opera? The opera was lots of fun. The singing was the traditional Italian and wonderful to listen to. The plot was very simplistic as many operas tend to be. The great fun was the scenery, the staging of it, how they used it (sheep, dogs, horses, cars: all 2-dimensional), the actors' body language throughout and the television screen with the English/Australian slang translations on it throughout located above the stage. Whoever wrote the translations was having great fun with the opera. The audience laughed throughout while enjoying the presentation of the opera. Basically two men were trying to whoo one pretty lady: a poor rancher/ranch hand and a military sergeant. The poor man tried to use a special potion to make her love him. The potion was in a small famous Coca Cola bottle. The last scene had all the characters taking Coca Cola bottles from a red and white vending machin...

Sunrise to Sunset in Sydney Day 3 in Sydney has lasted from sunrise to sunset. Boats, busses, trains, monorails, and foot has taken me to many places today. To the central train station to orient myself. Then to the Central Quay between the famous Opera House and the "Coat hanger", the famous bridge in the harbour. From there I took the longest ferrie boat out to Manly a neighborhood, suburb, near the entrance to Sydney Harbour not far from where I had fish and chips yesterday. It was a great peaceful ride on a somewhat sunny mostly clouded over with rain cloud morning. Saw many perspectives of the two outreached arms of Sydney Harbour as it surrounds the harbour facing the Pacific Ocean. The head is the Central Quay with the Opera House on the right shoulder and the Coat Hanger bridge that people love to climb like a mountain (NOT ME THIS TIME) instead I went to the opera. Once I returned to the Central Quay I took the ferrie that crosses back and fo...

Auckland & Sydney Day 1 Hello Fellow cyber travelers I was out of touch for awhile because I didn't have access to the internet and because I received some very sad news that my sister-in-law, Rosalie in Michigan, became very ill and passed away from a heart attack over the weekend. Trying to reach to my brother and his family became very difficult from around the world. My hope is that you each may put my brother and his children in your thoughts and/or prayers during their time of grief. Rosalie was always a person with a very kind and giving heart. I spoke to her a couple weeks before I left just as she had just left the hospital and she was still positive with all her health problems. -------------------------------- This weekend I spent with a retired couple that live in the Manakau area near the Auckland Airport. I spent one night in downtown Auckland at a Bed and Breakfast just a few blocks from the Sky City Tower, one of the tallest in the worl...

Rotorua and trip to Auckland Rotorua was a lot of fun. I walked into the centre of the city from my motel last night for dinner and to sitesee. The signs said 2 KM. It took an hour. Therefore it was closer to 3 1/2 to 4 miles. A continuous strip of motels all the way. This is a vacation spot for people seeking the baths and the Geysers along with the history of the Maori people of New Zealand. I found a cyber cafe last night to write from and now I am writing from one in downtown Auckland. Rotorua is very, very flat. It sits on a large lake and is surrounded by smoke rising from the ground every so often. I was less than 1/2 mile from the main geysers in this area in my motel. The last time one of them exploded it wiped out an entire community of Maori people, several years ago. Cabbed into Rotorua to site see this morning, eating my way from pastry shop to pastry shop and to sandwich shop. Found the tourist center and then the Maori museum which was built a...

Wellington to Rotorua Today I started out riding into Wellington with mywonderful hosts: Neville and Rhona. From there I tried once again to meet with the people from BBDO and Saatchi. No luck. Still too busy. Oh well. On my way to the pier I found a couple training firms that I stopped in and talked to some of their staff. That was interesing. Then off to the Queens Pier to find out about the boat that takes people across the huge bay here to Days Bays and back. Then off to ride the "Cable Car" up the mountain. There is only one now, mostly a tourist thing. But in the past there were a few that were used from transportation in lieu of busses from the mountain to the downtown area of Wellington. Off to wander through town a little and to find the Architectural and Design Institute (school). Like all the schools in NZ it was closed. I did see some student exhibits in the central areas open to the public. Then off to the Wellington Airport to fly to...

3rd deep frost in a row -  Wellington day 3 There was another very deep and cold frost again last night. The ground is pure white from the frost. My fingers are numb with the cold. As an American I am truly spoiled by the way we heat our homes and I keep mine relatively cold myself. Yesterday in Wellington was filled with fun. I met and interviewed architects, landscape architects and graphic designers in their various offices as I traveled around the city.  Had no luck with two ad agencies: Saatchi & Saatchi and BBDO. All of their creative directors were out at meetings with clients. Toured on a double decker bus around the city centre and got off at their new award winning museum: Te Papa.  It is filled with hands on things about New  Zealand's natural environments: earthquakes,  volcanoes, winds, etc and its various cultures over  the past thousand or so years. There are Maori  buildings, boats and a vast array of their won...