Day Fourteen and Day Fifteen- At Sea

Day 14 and Day 15 were spent in the ship crossing the Tasman sea to Tasmania.


The color of the sea for those two days was a georgeous blue.

The Eight of Us

We really did all travel together and had a great time.  Some of these shots are better than others but---- oh well.

Day Thirteen- Fjordland, New Zealand

After leaving Dunedin, which is on the Southeast side of the South Island we traveled around the bottom of the island and into Fjordland National Park.  A fjord is defined as a U-shaped glacier-carved valley which has been flooded by the sea.  This area has achieved World Heritage Status.  It is known for its dramatic fjords, spectacular waterfalls and snow-capped peaks.  It rains there 320 days a year and we were there on one of those days.  That was actually lucky because it is on those days that the waterfalls are so full and dramatic.

We were able to sail through two fjords in the park.  The first was named Doubtful Sound because Captain Cook was doubtful whether they would actually be able to sail in and out.

The second was named Milford sound and the most famous one.  There is some helicopter dropped lodging in the fjords and many miles of hiking trails are all through the park.

The fascinatinng thing about the rainforest walls is that the rock is hard with no dirt surface so unless a plant is able to get into a crack it attaches to other plants and clings on impossibly on the mountain front.  When a plant does tumble who areas come crashing down together because they are not rooted into anything except each other.

Day Eighteen- Sydney, Australia

Mike and I got up and were outside before the sun came up as we were docking in Sydney.  We stayed outside and took pictures as the light changed and the sun finally came up.

We watched the mighty city wake up.

It was fun to watch the bridge come alive, too.

I don't know where to start or stop with Sydney.  There were beautiful buildings, historic areas, beaches, gardens and about anything else you would want to see.  We were in a van going quickly past mosts of it with a stop here and there.  It was a great overview of the city but I don't even know what most of my pictures are of.

This is the view out our window on the 18th floor of the Swissotel.

Here is a closer look at the beautiful purple trees I told you about.

Day Sixteen- Burnie, Tasmania

Burnie's major industry was the paper industry.  You'll see the huge, now empty paper mill in one of these pictures.  The mayor met us at the boat and the people all welcomed us to their visitor center where they had many local artists and a papermaking museum.  The other three pictures are people cast from paper.



Because of the paper industry much of the north end of Tazmania has been planted in forests.  It takes 25 years for these trees to grow and so many of them were planted before the paper mill was shut down. The forests have almost a red cast.  Sadly the come in and just cut down a full forest so you drive past miles and miles of stubs and the junk left after the loggers have finished.  We suggested to each other that they at least should leave 10 feet of trees by the road just for aesthetics.

We saw some interesting birds, a spiny ant eater, and then visited a reserve for protecting and breeding Tazmanian Devils and a little animal that I have never seen before called a quoll.  The devils do sound very vicious and I guess can be when they are a bit older but the 2-year-olds that we saw were quite docile.

Tazmania was also lush and green.  Our driver, who was a substitute that didn't know quite what he was doing, decided to take us to see a ghost town and got lost.  We did experience lots of the bush country and giant ferns but we saw very few vehicles for about 30 minutes.  He finally turned around and headed toward Cradle Mountain National Park.  The fourth picture is of cradle mountain.  He was to take us into the park and let us walk around a lake but we took another approach instead.

As we came down from the Cradle Mountain area things became greener again the we got close to the sea.

It was fun to get to the boarding area for the ship and find bagpipers there playing for us.