User talk:Mel Bowen

The Heart of Down Under

By MEL BOWEN Freelance Travel Writer How do I select the highlight of a trip Down Under? A trip that included a visit to a cattle ranch near Cairns, Australia; a visit with a sheepherder near Queenstown, New Zealand; a visit to the absolutely beautiful Botanical Gardens in Christchurch, New Zealand; a tour of the Opera House in Sydney, Australia; an overnight stay that included dinner at the home of Jed and Gloria Feringa in Christchurch; plus being entertained by the children at Sigatoka District School in Fiji. Do you get what I mean? It’s impossible. It was our second tour with Grand Circle Travel in less than six months. The above highlights lost a lot of brightness however because of three disasters that struck Down Under in February of 2011. Our first stop was Cairns, Australia, and we arrived there just four days after a cyclone crossed the area. While we were in Cairns, fires swept through Perth, Australia, and 70 homes were destroyed. It has been said that disasters usually happen in threes and that was only number two. The third disaster happened in Christchurch, Feb. 22, 2011, when more than 160 people died in a 6.3 earthquake. It struck during the lunch hour. Fortunately for our group of 41 people, we had left Christchurch a week prior to the Quake. Our Grand Circle guide Udo Jungman told us that two other Grand Circle groups were in Christchurch at the time of the earthquake but fortunately they were “out and about” and no one was injured. The trip got off to a rather auspicious start and it got worse later. Our first stop was Cairns and after the long flight from Los Angeles (nearly 18 hours with a connection in Sydney) when we arrived at the Rydges Hotel, our bus had to wait for a fire truck that was blocking the entrance. Cyclone Yasi had gone through the area four days earlier and I was later given an unconfirmed report that the firemen were checking to see if the roof would support the standing water. We did see several trees that had been uprooted by the storm. As we passed one uprooted tree, Udo said, “Have a look!” “Actually, the city of Cairns was very lucky. The damage was minimal for the city did not take a direct hit.” Day 1 (Feb. 7, 2011) As we boarded our bus for a trip to the Great Barrier Reef on our second day in Cairns, Udo said, “Have a look! “The houses look as if they are built on stilts. That is done mostly for air conditioning but some are built that way because of flooding.” Later Udo said, “Australia is a land of extremes. It is either too dry or too wet.” We were headed for Port Douglas and our bus driver, Diane Bennett said, “That is a rainforest up on that hill and you will be going up there in a gondola tomorrow. It is the only place in the world where two ecosystems meet. You have the Rain Forest and the Great Barrier Reef.” When Diane stopped the bus, Udo said, “If you want to have a look at the Super Bowl, ‘they have it on in Mount Malloy Pub right over there’.” When found the television set there was only 50 seconds remaining and Green Bay was ahead of Pittsburgh, 31-25. Later Udo said, “American football is not very big down here.” When I told our guide that I had a local beer, he said “I don’t know any Australian who drinks Fosters. It’s made for export.” Back home, we frequently see a television commercial that says, “Australian for beer; Fosters.” After lunch we boarded the bus and Diane took us to Wetherby Station. As we took a seat in the grandstand, John Colless addressed us mounted on his horse Duke. He said “We send a lot of beef to America, a lot to Japan, Russia and to the emerging markets like China.” He added that Wetherby is not a big ranch but “we have 1,000 acres and 450 head of cattle. We get about $1,000 a head on our cattle.” There were a dozen cattle in the pen in front of us and John said, “These were boys. They’re steers now.” Suddenly John looks to the pasture on his left and he says, “The virgins are coming in.” When John calls, “Come on,” the Herefords pick up the pace. All of a sudden they’re galloping toward him. “We’ll keep them away from the bulls for about another 10 months,” he says. “Our cattle are all grass fed and our grass is green year round.” Colless singled out one of the steers for us and said “This one will probably go to Japan. That little one over there will probably go to Korea; they seem to like smaller ones. ‘Horny’ over there was castrated three months ago.” As John talked the sky started to darken and he said, “It looks like we’re getting some rain.” There upon he invited us into his home where his wife Kathy had prepared a lovely roast beef dinner for us. Incidentally, the ranch house was built on stilts.

Day 2 (Feb. 8, 2011) Following breakfast in the morning of February 8, we saw men and women in bright orange suits posing for a group picture. Their suits all had big letters, SES on them and my wife Kathy asked what that meant. The man said, State Emergency Service. They were all volunteers in Cairns doing cyclone relief down in Townsville. They checked out of the hotel that morning. Soon Diane arrived with our bus and she drove us back up Highway 1 again towards Port Douglas. This time we were heading for the Great Barrier Reef. While we were aboard the bus, Diane said “Cardwell, Pollyheads and Mission Beach were hit hard by the cyclone. Cardwell was hit the worst but that’s a small town of only about 1,000 residents.” She said one person died trying to start his generator. It was an hour bus ride and then another hour-and-a-half aboard a Quicksilver Catamaran. When we got to the reef, a floating dock was awaiting along with a lot of Quicksilver employees eager to help us with snorkeling, scuba diving, or just viewing the coral. I did not participate in the snorkeling but Kathy did and she said it was very choppy and she saw only a couple of fish. Later we boarded a submarine type boat and got a good look at some beautiful coral. After our day at the reef, we boarded the boat for Port Douglas again and then the bus back to Cairns. Dinner was on our own again and we found a place along the waterfront to eat prawns. The exchange rate put the Aussie dollar about even with the U.S. dollar but things seemed very expensive. As our trip progressed, I learned that Grand Circle provided dinner for us once at each stop. Another interesting thing about this tour, we had a total of seven flights, two to get to Cairns, one back to Sydney, one to Christchurch, and one to Auckland and one to Fiji before heading back to Los Angeles. Day 3(Feb. 9, 2011) Next we were to learn about Australia’s aborigines’ people but the center we were supposed to visit had been closed because of the cyclone. However Grand Circle had a Plan B and they took us to another performance. Here we saw them dance, throw spears and boomerangs. After taking the gondolas up the mountains we saw the beautiful Rain Forest. Udo had told us that there had been a lot of rain in this area recently and sure enough, there was a lot of water at Barron Falls. Day 4(Feb.10, 2011) The next day we flew back to Sydney in the morning. Our itinerary said lunch would be included on the flight but the schedule had been changed and we were now flying with a company called JetStar and not Qantas. Udo apologized for there being no food. He said Sydney’s first residents were convicts shipped their by Great Britain, when Australia belonged to the British Empire. That afternoon we visited the Opera House. Our docent, Alex, told us how they structure was built with the assistance of three videos. There are five theaters, the Utson Room and an outside area where concerts are held. We could not visit the concert hall because a rehearsal was under way there but we did see the opera hall that holds 1506 people. Five operas are done in repertoire because the singers do not use microphones and they need to rest their voices between performances. The Utson Room is a beautiful meeting place named for the son of John Utson, the man that designed the Opera House. The younger Utson is also an architect. Outside, Kathy took pictures of the roof which features self-cleaning tiles. Following our tour of the Opera House we had a wonderful dinner on the waterfront at Nick’s. This dinner was included in the price of our tour. Day 5(Feb. 11, 2011) The next morning we had a four hour city tour and we drove past St. Mary’s Cathedral before stopping in The Domaine Park for a group photo with the Opera House and the Sydney Bridge in the background. Of course, the photographer tried to sell us his photograph. While we were on the bus, Udo said “Have a look!” He pointed out a house purchased by the actor Russell Crowe. He said, “Russell Crowe bought that for his wife for $14 million.” The bus driver corrected Udo and said it was only $12 million. Udo also pointed out a condo owned by actress Nicole Kidman. The population of Sydney is 4.5 million and Udo said he lives here. The entire country of Australia has a population of only 20 to 21 million people. “We won’t be going to the other side of the Harbour Bridge for it would take you another four hours.” Our bus took us through the red light district and Udo said “There not as much of that now but there was quite a few prostitutes here during the Vietnam War.” We saw King’s Cross and Udo said the harbor is actually a river, Paramento River. As we went by a yacht club and entered the Eastern suburbs, Udo said housing prices have gone up 200 percent here and “the recession has made a very small dent in the prices.” Eighty percent of Australians own their own home. Next we went past Double Bay and then Rose Bay, the largest in Sydney. Udo said, “Qantas used to land sea planes here and it took seven days to get here from London.” At Parsley Bay the bus stopped so we could stretch our legs and we walked across a swinging bridge. At the harbor entrance, we looked out at the Tasmanian Sea and Udo said the governor used a convicted architect to design the lighthouse. “All beaches are private and have public toilets with coin operated barbecues,” Udo said proudly. Later we made a 45-minute stop at Bondi Beach, the most famous beach in Sydney were lunch was on our own. We also did a harbor cruise, an optional tour, which means we had to pay for it. Some of the travelers took the ferry boat to Manly Beach instead of paying for the cruise. My cold had gotten worse so I tried to stay away from my fellow passengers hiding down below but I did hear the docent say he prefers Manly Beach over Bondi. He said, “Bondi is better for surfers.” Day 6(Feb. 13, 2011) On Sunday morning we had an early flight to Christchurch which is on New Zealand’s South Island. Once again we were on JetStar and not Qantas so no food was provided. When we arrived in Christchurch our first stop was the Antartica Center, home of research teams from New Zealand and the United States. Italians are now participating. Dinner at our hotel, another Rydges, was included. Day 7 (Valentine’s Day) Monday morning some of the guests participated in another optional tour but we decided to walk through the Botanical Gardens. Christchurch calls itself the City of Flowers and the gardens were absolutely beautiful, especially the Central Rose Garden. Kathy got some beautiful photographs here. Right next door to the Botanical Gardens is a museum where we learned the history of the city. Day 8 (Feb. 15, 2011) Now it was time for our city tour and bus driver Danny Ross said, “Early Englishmen came here by ship. They all had to be of good character and it took about three-and-a-half months to get here.” Scaffolding surrounded many of the buildings in downtown Christchurch and in fact it surrounded the church across the street from our hotel. Ross said, “Some of the small old buildings will have to be taken down as a result of the Sept. 4 earthquake.” He said, “There was no loss of life because it happened about 4:30 a.m. It had a magnitude of 7.1.” Many of those small old buildings Ross described probably came down in the 6.3 earthquake that struck during the noon hour February 22, a week after we departed from Christchurch. As many as 180 people perished. Ross said Christchurch has a population of 300,000 people as he drove us to Lyttelton where the early settlers landed. There were two cruise ships in port, the Sun Princess and the Silver Spirit. That evening, back at the hotel, Jed Feringa picked us up at the hotel for a visit to his home and met his wife Gloria after our arrival at their home. She had stayed behind to cook us a lovely corn beef and cabbage dinner. Fellow travelers, Neilia and Stan Makadon joined us for the overnight stay. Much of the evening was spent talking about the Sept. 4 earthquake and we had something in common with them for we had lived through the Loma Prieta earthquake in Santa Cruz County in 1989. Our quake had a magnitude of 7.4. Jed brought out an Atlas with a map of the United States so we, and the Makadons could show him exactly where we live. When we returned to California, I tried to contact Jed and Gloria by email three times for I was concerned for their safety. All of the emails were returned to me and I became even more concerned. Finally I wrote a short letter and mailed it March 8 via the U.S. Postal Service. On March 17 we received an email from Jed and Gloria. Thank goodness they are OK. Here’s what Gloria wrote: “Please forgive me for not sending you a copy of what I sent to other American people who stayed with us as you did also. “I have been inundated with emails and I have tried my best to answer them all. “Thank you both so much for thinking of us - our American friends have been just great and have our interest and health at heart. As you will see, we are o.k. “I personally am finding the earthquake aftermath very hard to deal with but I am trying. “Today is the Commemorative Day and thousands of people are expected to attend - being held in Hagley Park near the centre of Christchurch. Jed & I will not be attending as I don't think I could walk the possible distance to get there. We will watch it on TV. “Best wishes to you both and thank you. “ She went on to say they have a new email address. She also said they have seven people in their home now because both of their children lost their homes and their son also lost his business.

Day 9 (Feb. 16, 2011) The next morning we boarded the bus for a long trip between Christchurch and Queenstown, 300 miles. It took us approximately 10 hours but we did make frequent stops to stretch our legs. Lunch was on our own at Lake Tekapo. The glacier colored water in Lake Tekapo reminded me of Alaska. Our driver now was Bill Metherev and he said a lot of the North Island money is coming south where the people are buying up struggling sheep farms and turning them into dairy farms. Mount Cook, 12,349 feet high, was barely visible above the clouds. Mount McKinley (20,300 feet) in Alaska is seldom seen by the naked eye. “In the flatland you will see seven sheep to an acre and they are used to raise lamb chops. In the high country, there are three sheep to the acre and they are mostly raised for the wool.” We also saw a lot of deer ranches. Udo said, “They are used for the venison which has a mild taste. It is not wild like the hunted deer. You can hunt deer here 365 days out of the year.” Our bus took us through Fiordland National Park which Bill said is 40 percent larger than your Yellowstone National Park. While riding the bus, Udo gave us some very interesting facts. For instance, possums are a big problem in New Zealand but not in Australia, where they are protected by law. We passed many, many sheep grazing in the fields and a lot of lakes used for power plants. New Zealand has no nuclear power plants whereas France, on our previous Grand Circle tour, has a proliferation of nuclear plants. In Australia we had passed miles and miles of sugar cane fields and in New Zealand we passed miles and miles of sheep ranches. We also passed a lot of vineyards, something that was also common to Australia. Udo explained, “The vineyards are kind of a new venture here. The ranchers are turning their sheep ranches into vineyards.” Once we arrived in Queenstown, on the edge of Lake Wakatipu, we checked into another Rydges Hotel and dinner was again provided. Surrounded by majestic mountains and nestled on the shores of crystal clear Lake Wakatipu, Queenstown is New Zealand’s premier lake and alpine resort. Queenstown was soon to become my favorite stop on this trip. The city of 9,500 people promotes itself as the activity center of New Zealand. It seemed like there were more people in town but then again February is High Season Down Under. Whatever you do, whatever your style, Queenstown will feed your imagination. There’s plenty for the active person, such as skydiving, bungy jumping, jetboating, canyon swinging, whitewater rafting, parapenting, heli-skiing... I did not go jetboating but my wife said she had a great time on the water. Day 10 (Feb. 17, 2011) On this day we took a boat ride on the TSS Earnslaw across the lake to Walter Peak Sheep Station where rancher Peter Ruddenklau put on quite a show for us. First, he showed us how dogs control sheep. He said, “Sheep are scared of dogs and it is important for the dog not to scare them. He called his dog Meak and he said she is a working dog. Some become pets but they really “don’t make good pets. They’ll work the sheep for two years or maybe three.” After two or three years, a sheep dog is used for breeding purposes and not as a pet. Later, I got a chance to ask Peter how much a good dog is worth and he said, “A dog like Meak, about $5,000 NZ.” At this writing, the New Zealand dollar was worth approximately 75 cents to the U.S. dollar. Following the dog demonstration, Peter got his exercise as he grabbed one of the sheep and sheared off the wool. Later, he said he does that three times a day for the tourist. Somebody asked Peter if he owned the ranch and he said, “No, I’m just part of a big company called Quicksilver.” Walter Peak Station consists of 64,000 acres, has 20,000 sheep and 800 cattle and it is run by only four people. It is pretty steep up in the high country where they have only one sheep for every three acres. Day 11 (Feb. 18, 2011) This was going to be a big day for I was highly anticipating a visit to Milford Sound. A light rain had begun to hit the windshield and our driver said. “This is our rainy season. Most of the rain falls in the summer.” Metherell said the Sound can get 300-inches of rain in 200 days. “In 1994 27-inches of rain fell in one 24-hour period but we cheated a little, it was between 3 a.m. and 3 a.m. (instead of midnight to midnight).” Once we arrived at Milford Sound, we boarded the boat called Milford Sovereign and cruised all the way to the Pacific Ocean. When we got there, a large cruise ship, Silver Sea’s “Silver Spirit,” followed us all the way back up the sound to the dock. I must say Milford Sound was beautiful but I was a little disappointed. I think Glacier Bay in Alaska is just as nice.

Day 12 (Feb. 19, 2011) The next day we boarded the bus to the airport for another plane ride. This one however was not long; we were only going to the airport in Queenstown for our flight to the North Island. We were headed to Auckland and this was our final flight on a JetStar aircraft. Again Udo apologized for the fact that there was no food on the aircraft. Once we arrived in Auckland we heard a talk on the Maori Culture where we visited a Marae village. A basic lunch of soup and bread was included. The soup was very tasty. That afternoon we checked into The Rendezvous Hotel and dinner was included. Day 13 (Feb. 20) Our day began with a journey to the Viaduct area where our group was split up for a 45-minute sail aboard the Pride of Auckland’s “Explorer.” My wife and I selected to go in the second group so with an hour of free time we visited the huge Auckland Maritime Museum. On the second floor we found a display that included artifacts from New Zealand’s America’s Cup yacht. Whereas Christchurch is the City of Gardens and Queenstown the City of Active Sports, Auckland is the City of Sails. The museum visit fueled me with questions about America’s Cup for our skipper as we sailed through the bay. America’s Cup was held in Auckland twice, in 2000 and 2003. New Zealand became the first foreign country to beat the Americans in a challenge race in San Diego in 1995. That was the third time San Diego had hosted the yacht race as “Stars and Stripes” won there in 1988 and Bill Koch’s “America” won in 1995. Our skipper said whoever wins the race determines the location and the date of the next race. In 2003 Switzerland, a country that is land-locked without an ocean, beat the host New Zealand yacht and the next two races were held in Valencia, Spain in 2007 and 2010. In 2010, Larry Ellison’s Oracle Racing team brought the trophy home to the United States. The next America’s Cup race will be held in San Francisco in 2013. When we returned to the bus we started our city tour. Udo told us that there are approximately 135,000 yachts in Auckland which actually has two major harbors, one opening to the Tasmanian Sea and the other to the Pacific Ocean. “Not many cities can claim that,” he said. Waiktemata is the North Harbor and Manukau the South Harbor. One of the city tour stops was on top of Rangitoto volcano where the crater was full of beautiful green grass. The dormant volcano provided us with a great view of the city. Most of our stays on this Grand Circle tour featured three nights in a hotel but we only had two nights in Auckland. Day 14, Feb. 21, 2011 We had another long travel day coming up and it took our bus awhile to get to the airport. On the way, Udo said, “One benefit is that it will get you nearly four hours closer to home.” From Fiji to Los Angeles would soon be a 10 hour flight and not the 18 hours in the airplane it took us to get to Cairns at the start of the trip. After this flight we had another long bus ride from the airport in Nadi to our stay at the Shangri-La Resort. The resort is massive, taking up an entire island, and Udo guaranteed us we would get lost at least once. I think I got lost three times trying to find my way around. Diner was at our own expense and some of our fellow travelers took in the Polynesian Live Dance show which cost $94 Fijian (approximately $50 U.S.)

Day 15, Feb. 22, 2011 The next day Simon Qoro became our local guide and he got off to a rather auspicious start for he was an hour late arriving at Shangri-La. The whole day’s schedule had to be moved back an hour. Simon apologized and more than made up for his tardiness with his knowledge of Fijian customs. Simon taught us half-dozen Fijian words, the most important of which was “Bula, Bula!” That means hello and we heard that all over the resort as we tried to find our way. Another important word in Fijian is “Ta Naka” which means Thank You. I failed to master the other words but they were for goodbye, yes, no and no problem. Udo had prepared us well while we were in New Zealand for what we were to experience here. He had told us on the bus earlier that Fijians are very proud people and they like to entertain us. “They in turn expect you to entertain them. You have to prepare a special song that you will sing for them and you have to elect your own chief. The chief must sit for a long time on the floor with his legs crossed.” It did not take very long for Shirley Meyers, a fellow traveler, to come up with some special words to be sang to the tune of Yankee Doodle Dandy. Simon took us to the Sigatoka market downtown. He wanted us to see how the local market their farm products. On the way he told us, “We’re on the western side of the island of Yanuca. This is one of 300 islands that make up Fiji. We get about 17 inches of rain here where the eastern side gets about 120 inches of rain. Later that morning we visited Nayawa Village and we were greeted by Chief Big Ben. After his short talk we went into a large room where one of his tribesmen prepared a native drink called Kava. Our elected chief, Bob Robert (Bob) Hiller of La Canada Flintridge, sat on the floor in front of all of us with his legs crossed. Chief Big Ben handed our Chief Bob a bowl of Kava and commanded him to drink it. After that, another Nayawa tribesman offered our fellow guests a sip of the drink. I had watched a Fijian man mix it with his bare hands and decided to pass. The tribesman was not offended, just as Udo had said. The Nayawa group sang to us and we sang our special song for them. One of our people gave a long talk about how America was also settled by the British. Nobody asked me, but I thought this was not only too long but out of place. I wanted to learn about life in Fiji. After our meeting in the cultural hall, we were divided into four groups for lunch prepared by the Nayawa wives. It was spread out on the floor and we were expected to sit on the floor with our legs crossed. Because many in this group were seniors some were offered chairs. We ate many vegetables with some meat dishes with our fingers. The food was plentiful and quite tasty. We had one more stop to make and that was at the Grand Circle Foundation Site, “The Sigatoka District School.” The students were supposed to end classes at 3 p.m. but as I said, we were running a bit late. Simon had called the principal and he held the kids for us. Be still my heart. These students were lined up with the shortest in front, the tallest in the back and they sang three songs to us, the first by the young ones, the second by the middle classes and the third by the elder students, who also danced. Once we sang our song and fortunately the lady from Georgia did not speak. Next the principal asked us if we would like to see the kids’ classrooms. I had made eye contact with a little first grade girl. When the principal said this, that little girl raced right to me and grabbed my right hand. One of the others, a young boy, grabbed my left hand and the three of us led the parade to see their desks and their classrooms. I could hardly hear my little sweetheart but she said her name was Emily. As I said in the beginning, it would be hard to pick a single highlight. But if you push me into a corner, the school visit tops them all. Day 23, Feb. 23, 2011 I went down to the Golden Cowrie restaurant for breakfast ahead of Kathy this morning. Seeing an open chair at the table with two ladies, Carol Anderson of South Bend, IN., and Marjorie Barbour of La Crescenta, CA, I asked if I could join them. We had become acquainted while on the boat to the Great Barrier Reef. It was here that I first heard about the terrible earthquake in Christchurch. Carol asked if I had been watching the news and when I said I had not. She described the destruction she had seen. Later in the morning, most of our group went to Kula Eco Park, a bird sanctuary. Kathy and I were among the dozen or s that decided to stay behind to explore the resort. We were getting tired with the fast pace Grand Circle tours set. We were ready to go home but our flight was not until the next night. I finished a book I had started on the airplane when we left Los Angeles and Kathy was busy reading in her ebook reader, a Nook. She did explore the beaches in the massive Shangri La resort. That evening we enjoyed our Farewell dinner and took pictures of our travel companions. We probably will never see the others again but then there is always a chance. Kathy once ran into a friend in Hong Kong and I once bumped into an old classmate in London. Day 24, Feb. 24, 2011 It’s a small world but Down Under is a long, long flight away. Like Udo said, we got closer to home when we visited Fiji. After we arrived at Los Angeles International Airport, we caught the shuttle to the Marriott Hotel where we had left our car and we drove back to Palm Desert, exhausted but brimming with memories. My thoughts of Emily will linger awhile and my hopes and prayers go out to Jed and Gloria Feringa of Christchurch, NZ. (Editor's note: I have several good photos that could accompany this story.) --Mel Bowen (talk) 17:50, 5 August 2011 (UTC) Mel Bowen, retired travel editor