Posts from — February 2025

Today we planned to go to Manly Beach by ferry from Circular Quay.
However, before that and just as we had poured milk into our cereal the building fire alarm went off. Loud speakers were telling you to evacuate and lots of ringing alarms.
We got down stairs and waited for the fire department to arrive. It turned out to be a false alarm.

Anyway, after breakfast we headed off again on Bus #333 to downtown Sydney and got there in time to board the ferry to Manly Beach. The trip was on one of the fast ferry’s and it was very scenic with a great coastline and lots of harbour traffic criss crossing back and forth.

Manly Beach itself is a very picturesque smaller coastal community. Lots of shops, restaurants, souvenir stores, etc Once we arrived we did a short walk to enjoy the beach and then got one local bus that did a circle route of the area.

After lunch we shopped and then did a short hike to Shelley Beach. On the walking paths there were signs painted warning that penguins could be about.

Overall it was a beautiful day in a beautiful area of Sydney.

We caught Bus #333 back to Bondi Beach and since we were a little later in the day the bus was very crowded.

We got a fairly early start this morning? We started by figuring out which bus to catch and where to catch it in order to get down to the Circular Quay.
We caught bus #333 from Bondi Beach to the end of the route at the Circular Quay. This is also the location for the Sydney Opera House and it is the starting point for the large fleet of water ferry’s.
We started by heading for the Opera House, taking in the sights and having a hard time believing we were actually there.

From this pier/plaza area you can watch the ferry’s come and go plus it is a great place to see the Harbour Bridge. The Harbour Bridge is a pretty iconic structure and people actually pay a lot of money to climb to the top of it. If you look hard in the picture you can see a group at the top.

We were able to book tour tickets for an inside look of the Opera House. However the tour didn’t start till later in the afternoon so we headed to the Royal Botanical Gardens, to walk around.

After the Botanical Gardens we joined up with our tour group for an inside look of the Opera House. The tour was 1 hour long and it covered everything from the early political wrangling to approve construction, to early engineer and design, to governmental scope changes and even detail on the external tiles and how they are and were designed. Little fact, there are over 1 million tiles on the exterior of the building.

Just before we finished the tour we were taken to the main theatre that holds 2700 people and while visiting we listened to an Austrian pianist practicing for her evening performance.
We forgot to mention that in the basement of our hotel is a fantastic veggie market and combined grocery store, it’s very handy.

Monday morning was travel day for Dean and Judy and us.
Dean and Judy left very early and were flying from Adelaide to the Sunshine Coast area; specifically Coolum Beach.
We got up later, went for a morning walk, had breakfast and then headed to the airport. We were flying from Adelaide into Sydney and the staying in the Bondi Beach area.
The flight was excellent and the Chief Customer Service rep was very generous with the wine and snacks. In fact when she found out that Brenda had a peanut allergy she checked the ingredients list of the small snack packages and gave each of us a small bag of them and a small bottle of sparkling wine. Lucky us!
We are staying at The Adina which is an apartment style hotel property in the Bondi area. Once we arrived we dumped our luggage and headed off to see the beach. The beach was very busy as it was sunny and very warm, even though it was near to 5:00 pm.
Below are a few random pictures.

On Sunday we were off on a day long wine tour. The region we were visiting was McLaren Vale, which is south of Glenelg.
On today’s wine tour we signed on with a private Company that does small group tours. The benefit is that we can all sample the wine and don’t have to worry about consumption and driving.

We visited 4 very different boutique wineries and a sidebar photo stop at a Salvador Dali inspired winery called d’Arenberg Winery.
Each winery gave us a lot of different Red’s, White’s and Rose’s to sample and one even gave us a taste of their Port Wine.
At the third winery we were given a Charcuterie Board for 2 to be shared. Each board had a sampling of cheeses, meats, pickles, crackers and even beet chutney. It was all Yummy!
Here’s a sampling of some of the day’s pictures.

The region is quite concerned about a disease organism going through the wine industry. So you are not allowed to walk through the vineyards or touch the vines, henceforth the Grumpy Vine sign.
All in all it was a great day.

Friday morning we went for a walk along the beach before breakfast. The ocean side walk is beautiful with lots of apartments and condos in the area. But you can tell that this is where the real high end real estate is in the Adelaide’s area.
Glenelg is a southern suburb of the City of Adelaide and it is very well connected by a tram system, public bus transportation and road network.
once we got the day started we visited the local tourist information office and got a ton of advice on things to see and do in the Adelaide area.
So, we hopped on the tram to downtown Adelaide and our first stop was at Adelaide Central Market Market. This was a very traditional market where they sold fruits, veggies, meat, spices and everything food related. Look at the size of these local watermelons.

Afterwards we jumped on the free bus and got off at the Botanical Gardens where there is currently a glass art display throughout the grounds by Seattle artist Dale Chihuly.

After the Botanical Gardens we returned to the central shopping area. The ladies went to look at Opals and the various settings.

Then we boarded a very busy tram and headed back to our Condo for a quiet dinner in.

This morning we left Robe in full sunshine and beautiful warmth. The destination today was Adelaide and the drive was going to be over 4 1/2 hrs.
Along the way we stopped to see Larry the Lobster who is 17 metres high. Larry is located in Kingston Australia.

The road and country side to Adelaide was mostly dry scrub grass and quite barren. Then after about 4 hrs driving we reached Hahndorf a cute little German town that was founded in the early 1800’s.
By contrast Hahndorf was lush and green and had Palm Trees.

After a quick lunch we headed towards Adelaide and specifically Glenelg where our condo is for the next few days.

After we got the luggage unloaded Dean and Larry took the rental car back and Brenda and Judy went shopping for dinner. After a long day of travel we had a quiet evening.

We started out the day with a great breakfast at the local bakery. Then on to the iCentre for more detailed travel planning.
From the Information Centre we drove to the local Gannet Colony at Point Danger. They are trying to rebuild the colony so they limit access and the closest you can get is about 300 metres. There is a once a day guided tour but it is later in the day and we had to get moving.

From here we drove to Cape Nelson Lightstation. It was a beautiful and grand lighthouse but they only did a tour once per day at 11:30 am and we were there after lunch.

Tonight we stayed at Harbour View Hotel in Robe. Robe is a great little resort town with lots of shops and a few pretty nice restaurants. It’s very beautiful.

The following are a few of the funny oddities that we found about New Zealand

#1? Roadside Coffee Kiosk’s that pop up anywhere. This includes at the various private Holiday Camping Parks.
#2? Sheep on the North Island are generally used for food and Sheep on the South Island are used for Merino Wool clothing.
#3? Freedom Camping is very structured and you can’t just pull off and park on the side of the road. It must be an approved site with only so many spots. Fines can be quite heavy if the rules are not followed.
#4. Holiday Park Campsites have a fairly standard layout. This includes Women and Men standard showers and toilet facilities. Everyone we stayed at had an expansive kitchen and mygathering area. Plus shelves and cupboard for storing your dry goods if you are tenting or freestyle. Plus there is always an area where you can leave extra food and or spices, etc that you can give away at the end of your vacation. Plus every Park had Washer and Dryer facilities ; although the price and number of machines varied greatly. Also, all Holiday Parks had a kids playground area and many organized kid activity events and/or kid activity days. In additions most had a jumping pillow, disc golf, mini golf, BMX track, large chess games, etc etc

#5? Road Kill was 95% Possums, 4% Hedgehog and 1% Deer

#6? A lot of the clothing is now Merino and Possum; not just Merino Sheep Wool. They have displays in the stored to show and demonstrate the softness of Possum Merino.

#7? Meat Pies – You can get them almost anywhere and they are delicious. A few varieties we have has include; Steak and Mushroom, Steak and Cheese, Bacon and Egg, Steak and Kidney, Mince Pie, Quiche Lorraine, etc – they are perfect for lunch

#8. Road Signs! The New Zealand people have an amazing sense of humour. You will drive through 30 to 40 km of twisty turned roads with the speed limits posted from 25 km to 50 km. Then and all of a sudden you come around a corner and there is a straight road stretch of 200 metres and the sign posted is 100 km! This is immediately followed by twisty turning sections for the next 30 to 40 km.

#9? One Lane Bridge – “Right of Way”. The signs show an arrow in both directions of travel. If you have the “Right of Way” there is a large arrow on your side of the road sign. Conversely if the arrow is small you must give way to approaching traffic.

#10? 99.9% of the time there is no biking on the roads as the roads are too narrow and there is no defined bike route or paved area.

#11? Pedestrians do not have the right of way on any roads or side streets. The only time they are given leeway is when the crosswalk has 2 well defined orange markers on poles at the crosswalk.

#12? Security at the Airport is very tight. Absolutely every person must walk past a drug sniffing dog and a food inspection dog. Also you must declare and be prepared to answer questions about what you are bringing in to the Country and where you have been and where you are going.

We arrived in Melbourne from Christchurch around 7pm and went to a local pub for dinner.

In the morning we caught the local free tram to the Queen Victoria Market.

The market is made up of 2 huge buildings/warehouses. The first building is just seafood and meats of every kind. The next building was massive and was full of fruits, vegetables, material, electronics, fishing equipment, clothes and anything else you could think of.

After that we caught the tram back to near our hotel and then headed to the Queen Victoria Gardens which included the Shrine of Remembrance and the Royal Botanical Gardens. So much to see and a lot of walking on a rainy day. It was a +20,000 step day.

On Sunday we went on a tour to the Koala & Animal Wildlife Park and to the Philip Island Woolamai Beach for the Parade of Penguins.
We toured the Koala sanctuary first and saw many Koala’s both sleeping and awake. The parks is amazing as it provides a safe place for Koala’s to thrive.

We saw tons of Wallabies in the grasses before reaching the penguin site.
Then we were off to the Penguin Parade. The adult little blue penguins return to land and their burrows at dusk.

They seem to come out in small groups all over the beach. We were told between 700-1000 per night is the average. It was fun to watch the babies come out of their underground nests, scurry around and wait for their parent(s) to return with food. It wa a long day and we did not get back to our hotel until 12 midnight.

February 17 , we started our trip to Adelaide along the Great Coastal Road. It was a sunny day so the views were spectacular.

Along the way we had heard of a road to take to view Koalas and Kangaroos in the wild. We did a short hike and another group of tourists somehow spotted a lone Koala asleep at the top of a distant tree.
We ended our day at a 2 bedroom motel at Apollo Bay

Feb 18 was cloudy and chilly and was the day we saw lots of beaches and sand and limestone creations on the beach and surrounding cliffs, etc. Some of these included, Loch Ard Gorge, London Bridge, London Arch, the Twelve Apostles, The Bay of Martyrs and The Grotto.

On one of the hikes we saw an Echidna (kind of like a large hedgehog) in the wild.

Tonight we are in Port Fairy at the Seacombe House Motor Inn. It is a lovely older property.

Today is Thursday and this is the last leg in our Campervan in New Zealand. After emptying the holding tanks and fueling up we headed to Christchurch to return the Campervan.

When we arrived Dean and Judy were waiting for us. After answering a few questions and the Wilderness folks checking everything, we were on our way to downtown Christchurch. 

We used Uber (our first time using Uber) to get downtown. The experience went smoothly and Uber seems to have their systems worked out pretty well, even down to letting you add a tip for the driver to the cost of the ride afterwards. 
Once in downtown Christchurch we checked into the hotel and the headed out to explore the city. Christchurch had major earthquake in 2019 and even today rebuilding and reconstruction is ongoing.

They are trying to return the buildings to their original glory and at the same time build them robust enough for future earthquakes. 
We headed for the Botanical Gardens and had a great walk through a small part of the Gardens. 

On the way back to the hotel we did some shopping and walking through some local markets. Look at the selection of candy ropes from one of the shops and also the Valentines sweet treats.

After shopping we went to an Irish Pub for dinner.

Christchurch is a beautiful city and we enjoyed our short time here.