Day 5: Rotorua

OK, we expected to watch rugby on TV, but dart throwing championships?! And while we're on the subject of cultural differences, I know we all speak the same language, but doesn't "sachet" sound so much better than "garbage bag" ?? And one of my faves, for which I provided a picture below, is their term for shopping cart ;-)

It has been pissing down rain since the middle of the night so we are having a lazy morning at home. We may be running out of sunny days here based on the online weather forecasts, but we hear it's balmy (40's & 50's) in Bend.   We started the day with another 2 hour hike in the Whakarewarewa Forest, walking through some big California redwoods and past sulfur springs.

Then we drove into town to see the Rotorua Museum, which is situated in Government Gardens. Hal watched a bowling match, I took pictures of flowers and then we went into the museum, which was originally built to be a bath house for people "taking the cure" of the various hot mineral waters and mud baths.

They used x-ray, electricity, and vibratory stimulation to treat people from all over the world. Unfortunately, the sulfur in the waters immediately corroded all the pipes and interacted with the lead in the white painted furniture and walls, turning everything black--generally the place was a maintenance nightmare. Still it stayed in business for about the first 50 years of the 20th C treating celebrities, soldiers returning from the war, and the rich folks who came on cruise ships for several week stays. You're able to go down into the basement to see some of the old treatment rooms and pipes for bringing in water. Also, visitors can go the attic and get an amazing view of the surrounding sulfur springs and lake Rotorua.

Now the building is a wonderful museum with a large standing collection and narrative presentation of artifacts about the original settlers of NZ. Unfortunately, we couldn't take pictures of this part. Surprisingly, there was a special collection on display from WOW (World of Wearable Art) with winning costumes on display. My favorite, "EOS" for Evolution of Spirit, involved a hand-made beaded wire costume requiring 1,000 hours of work over a 4-month period to create. Alas my pic is blurry but you get the idea. I didn't even try to take pictures of the mini-collection of special bras from WOW because they were in glass cases and I knew the flash would make them unviewable; nevertheless, suffice it to say that one was made from kitchen utensils,  one from fiberglass with operational mini-cranes attached to the shoulders, and one was made from the artists' two deceased budgiebriars (aka parakeets) with spare feathers from an anonymous donor.  The heads were strategically located. 

All in all, an interesting museum well worth the visit.

Rotorua: Day 4

There are a million things to do around here. This is the volcanic hot spot of NZ and also a major center of Maori culture. We decided to start with something familiar, a hike in the woods. There is actually a huge (13,993 acres) specimen forest--Whakarewarewa (don't ask ME how to pronounce it)-- planted slightly over a century ago just outside the city.  Over 170 species were brought to the site in order to determine which could provide viable lumbering. It is multi-use, with trails for walkers, mountain bikers, and horses. We took the route that overlooked some thermal features and went through some very dense stands of trees. The ferns are everywhere and you can see why they are a common symbolic expression of NZ. Some of the tree ferns are probably 20-30 feet tall and it's odd to see these more tropical plants interspersed with stands of California redwoods! Our supposedly 2 hour hike turned into over 3 hrs since we made a few unintentional detours. Back to town for a few more groceries and I almost ran into a car when I failed to look right when entering a traffic circle. Whew! But I am turning on the windshield wipers less and less when I am trying to signal turns so that's promising. Quiet evening at the condo watching a movie. Not much on TV here except rugby and some interesting commercials. This unit has not one single lamp suitable for reading--an oversight I will point out the management ;-)

Hamilton: Day 3

Bright and early we got up and packed...it seems that somehow our clothing expanded and it was harder to get everything in the two little suitcases?! Had breakfast in our room, checked out, stored the bags and headed up the hill to the car hire office. OK, here's my secret admission, even though I have driven for extended periods (3 months 30 years ago, and two weeks about 10 years ago) I was still terrified about driving on the other side of the road. Fortunately, it's an automatic--not a luxury I had in the past--and the brake and gas are relatively in the same place, but the signal indicator is on the right and I'll tell you that I must have turned on the windshield wipers about 2 dozen times that first day when I was trying to signal a turn. Fortunately we made it out of Auckland without incident and hit the highway south towards Rotorua. NZ is hilly and green even at the end of summer. They have been blessed with a prolonged dry period unusual for this time of year; we've had only a sprinkle. Hamilton, the largest inland town in NZ according to Frommer's, was on our way and a description of their gardens tempted me. We could find no directions in our guide book so drove through Hamilton itself--very uninspiring--and then saw signage as we exited to Hamilton Gardens right on the major highway. Had a little lunch in the cafe and then wandered for a couple of hours through a really amazing collection of themed gardens.  Hit the road again about 2 pm and finally arrived in Rotorua. The directions to WorldMark directed around the town, but we drove through instead, encountering lots of traffic and road construction, but also a visitors' centre. Got directions to the resort and the Pak 'n Save where we bought some groceries--wow is food expensive here, rather like Hawaii in that regard. I'm sure we'll get another shocker when we fill the tank since petrol is over $8 NZ per gallon.  Checked in, unpacked and then went to the cafe on site for a light dinner as we were both pretty beat.  Pics below include one of me at Hal's insistence---one of the few you will see since I take most of the pictures ;-)

Auckland: Day 2

Slightly less weary, we had breakfast in our studio hotel room and headed down to Queen's Wharf to take a ferry over to Devonport across the bay. It has been somewhat cloudy most of the time we've been here, which is fine--when the sun comes out, it's like being gently steam baked--so you'll see most of the pictures show overcast skies. We hiked along the waterfront to the Devonport Naval Museum and then back into town to buy a genuine souvenir hat for Hal and have a yummy lunch at an outdoor restaurant on Victoria Street. Great for people watching; Hal had a lamb burger and I had a fish pie. Like Auckland, the population is very diverse. We stopped in a pharmacy where the pharmacist was originally from Egypt and the tech from Dubai. There is an intriguing mix of English and Maori in the language, place names, and population. The trees are amazing and you can see how Peter Jackson got his inspiration for the Ents in the LOTR trilogy. Wandered around town some more and then took the ferry back to Auckland. Walked up to the car hire office to double check our reservation for the following day, and then down through Albert Park to the Auckland Art Gallery...did I mention that Auckland is hilly? --not too surprising since it is built on almost 50 volcanos! There was the most amazing giant "sculpture" of inflatable flowers hanging in the main atrium that alternately in/deflated--hard to describe but see pic below. We arrived only 40 minutes before closing so saw a fraction of the collection, but there was no admission charge at that point, so it was good! Stopped for a local brew at a pub, watched the people go by, found a regular grocery store for some supplies, and headed back to our room to finish off the lamb curry and mango chicken from the night before.

Auckland: Day 1

Depart Portland about 12:30 and then hang out at SFO for 5 hours. Oh boy. The flight to NZ was full and as wretched as anticipated--12 hours of sleepless inactivity in a cramped seat you literally had to crawl in and out of--thank goodness for lots of free movies.  Ugh. We arrived at 5:30 am local time, 2 days after we left since we crossed the dateline--that is, we left on Monday and arrived on Wednesday. Somehow we managed to be the very LAST ones to clear customs, and by the time we got a bus to the city and walked to our hotel,  (not as glamorous as the website portrays it, but quite comfy) it was about 8 am. We stored bags, hiked down to the wharf, waited until 9 when everything opened and bought tickets for a "hop on, hop off" bus pass that took us around the city ($40 NZ)--ouch! First place to disembark was a privately owned and run aquarium, Kelly Tarlton's, with an amazing variety and size of collections (see photo of shark bus attacking Hal). They had lots of penguins--a colony of Gentoo and King penguins that you could watch swim underwater--sharks, lobsters, eels, tropical fish, seahorses and sea dragons. Back on the bus to the Auckland Museum, reputedly having the largest collection of Polynesian artifacts in the world. Back to the hotel to get room keys, go find food at an Indian takeaway and then collapse at about 8 pm local time. Since I am managing to take about 100 pictures a day, I can only include a tiny sample here...

Fri-Sat, July 9-10--Athens and home

We flew back to Athens on Friday morning and spent the rest of the day puttering around buying gifts for people and then walking up Philopappou hill. Regretfully, we did not take the camera, for when we arrived at the top, the views of the acropolis and the city of Athens in all directions were unparalleled by anything we had seen. There are some nice photos taken from this hill here: http://www.vgreece.com/index.php?category=1121
Friday night we had a delicious dinner (complete with begging cat) at a restaurant also recommended by our friends at the hotel (Antonis & Giota). Saturday morning we had a harrowing time getting to the airport as the taxi did not show up when scheduled, in spite of Hal making several phone calls. Then the taxi driver decided to take surface streets instead of the state highway and I was about to have a stroke. At the airport, they checked everything I carried multiple times, possibly because I had a temporary passport. But finally we got on a plane to Newark and headed back to the USA. The fun wasn't over, however, as once we had moved to our connecting gate, I realized that my travel journal with all my postcards was still on the plane. In spite of waiting an hour to talk to a Continental agent, the journal was not retrieved and I lost my detailed account of our trip along with the postcards I had purchased at each place we stopped. It was almost as upsetting as having my purse stolen. Then there were mechanical problems with our flight so we waited and waited. And wouldn't you know it, as soon as Hal took off to find a sandwich, they started boarding the flight. I was frantically trying to find him so we wouldn't miss the flight home. Obviously we made it and Anne retrieved us, good friend that she is. It's been really good reconstructing the trip through the blog--getting to relive it in a small way. I'm really glad we went, since it's been on my "to do" list for over 40 years :-) Next...we will be taking Hal's trip of a lifetime--New Zealand.

Tues-Thurs, July 6-8--downtime on Crete

We did spend one day going into town (Hersonissos) on the bus and wandering around and then buying groceries to last us for the remainder of our time at the condo. We didn't go swimming, but obviously lots of people braved the water at the beaches there.

Having been on the go for well over two weeks, we were pretty lazy, although we did try to start our morning with a swim in the resort's pool before it got crowded. Often we were the only ones there at 8:30 in morning and it was really pleasant to have the water to ourselves. We raided the communal library for books, fixed our meals in the condo, rented a couple of movies. Hal was ambitious and went for a couple of walks, but I mostly read. You can see my book blog for reports on reading choices.
(http://paulamc-randomreading.blogspot.com/ )