Where does the time go? We left Cambodia and Thailand in January 2008 and flew via LA to Arizona. So it’s been nearly a year since we were traveling. In some ways it doesn’t seem so long ago but mostly it feels like it’s been ages. And it’s astonishing how completely ordinary life just swallows us up.

It was relatively easy to report on Laos because we were there only about ten days and didn’t have thousands of photos to sort through. Cambodia should not have been very difficult either as we had just a week there.

But after leaving Siem Reap in Cambodia we flew to Bangkok and immediately boarded our plane for LA. Then began life in America and we were hard put to muster the time and the will to prepare blog entries and photo albums.

In Arizona we visited Diane’s parents

for over six weeks, readjusting and getting spoiled by her dad’s cooking. Spending time with them mattered deeply to Diane before whatever we did next. Her brother John and his wife Cathy Jo also live in the area so we enjoyed visiting with them and getting reacquainted with their two young girls Emily and MaryAnn.

We also got to help a little with the building he was putting together for his woodworking business.

And our beautiful Sheltie, Ruby, who was staying with Diane’s parents, began to get to know us again.

Then in March we flew to Atlanta. Sara and Guillermo are our dear friends of many years and it was a special joy to see them again and stay with them.

Their daughter Emily took to us as though we hadn’t left and we met and loved their newest daughter Claire.

We stayed with Sara and Guillermo two and a half weeks and got to see all our old friends from UPS. We had wonderful evenings with Benny and her kids Sara and Matthew,

Alex and Heather and their daughter Zinnia,

Kip and Pancho and their girls Nyah and Bela.

Kim and Jeff treated us to a stay in their mountain cabin.

We had left a lot of boxes stored with Sara and Guillermo but we were too daunted to do much about sorting through it. It was more a time for enjoying people than dealing with stuff. We flew to California and were glad to see Bay Area friends again. Eroca and Kevin are great friends and an inspiring support for our travel.

We stayed with our friends Sherry and Cathleen, relishing their company and enjoying dog walks together.

We are grateful to Sherry and Dave’s daughter Laurel for handling our logistics during the months we were away. The trip would not have been possible without them. Laurel recently did her first stint of dog sitting for a friend.

We enjoyed seeing Dave’s son Jeremy and his mother Norma. It’s been great to be with family again.

A special treat was to see that all of the Pennington family – Gretchen, Terry, Kaylin, Katrina and Ella – are thriving.

It made us happy to see Gail, Sara and Catherine Brashear in their new home in Sonoma surrounded by garden.

To go to our home in Clearlake, three hours away up past Sonoma and Napa counties in Lake County, we rented a PT Cruiser. After looking at a lot of old sedans, vans and pickups, we eventually bought a 1987 Dodge Falcon camper van.

In June we drove the Falcon to Arizona so Dave could stay at the house with the animals while Diane joined her parents for a trip to Iowa and Connecticut. This was just after Iowa had suffered severe flooding and the guitar-making shop of Diane’s brother Dave was destroyed. Fortunately he was able to rescue his work in progress. Christina was a rock in working with FEMA and the kids Daniel and Grace were troupers and a joy to be with.

Diane’s parents flew to Connecticut while Diane drove with her daughter Jenn and grandson Max.

They were all there for the wedding of our niece Brooke to Allan.

It’s wonderful to see Brooke’s parents, Paul and Megan, so well and blessed.

Then after returning to Iowa it was time for the wedding of our nephew Josh to Marin.

Diane loved working with her brothers and sisters. She didn’t get a good picture of Colleen and is looking forward to more pictures from Mackenzie’s wedding.

Mary is having so much fun being a grandmother and Angela and Blayne are doing great.

Dave encouraged Diane to go and to take the pictures that he would like to see. Diane carried him behind the camera eye and everyone thanked Dave for the great husband and friend he is for her. And it is true.

It was great to see all the Hanischs while getting the house ready for new owners and at the wedding.

Back in Clearlake we now had an addition to the animal clan – a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel that Diane’s sister Beth gave to us as she made changes in her life. Her name is CJ (for Calamity Jane) and she's been a joy.

And we continued the work Diane had done upgrading the place. She had put in copious amounts of insulation and we had double-pane windows installed and the walls done with drywall instead of old paneling so the interior doesn’t look like a mobile home or heat and cool like one. Though it remains only 12’ wide. Picking flooring was fun and satisfying as it gave us a personal space we enjoy living in. What with the rains and two animals, we’re glad we had the whole place done in vinyl.

It’s fun to be homemaking together after spending so many months traveling.

There is a wonderful celebration with families and friends gathering this week in Des Moines, Iowa that we were loathe to miss. We send our congratulations and good wishes for the marriage of our niece Mackenzie and her partner Kevin. We imagine the dear Careys making and having a fabulous time.

Now as we go into the holiday season we remember with great fondness our last Christmas and New Year’s in Chiang Mai. Christmas was with our friends Tim and Thong at their Garden Café where we had a feast that included turkey and steamed pudding.

Our New Year celebration was at Pachkit House, where we stayed for three months. We had a wonderful time sharing the festivities with Meeme and other staff and guests, and Nam and her family.

We are also remembering others from Chiang Mai – Natalie, the sweet English girl from Barcelona who stayed in the neighboring room,

Umphaporn, Noi and all the other wonderful people at Pachkit , John and Boon at the Brick Road Café,

Sasi at her travel agency.

Also all the wonderful friends we made on the road – from England, Germany, France, China, Taiwan, Sweden, as well as the countries we visited. Special fond regards to Fred and Nicole.

For the time being we’re conserving our funds and postponing international travel. If we travel again in the future it will be hard to decide whether to go to new places – we have a hankering for long stays in Greece and Scotland – or revisit some of the places we loved so well.

Eventually we will catch up on posts for Thailand and Cambodia. For now, have a wonderful holiday season and a great new year! We’re enjoying a local Christmas this year.

This is us warming up for a sing-a-long at our local historical museum in Lower Lake.

We even had some snow around here -- it didn't stick to the ground but did leave a little dusting on nearby hills.

Let us hear from you if you have a moment, even a line or two. We love remembering you all and cherish our connections. Write a comment in the blog or send email (diane [at] dianeanddave.net or dave [at] dianeanddave.net).

Back in the U.S. of A. remains copyright of the author dave-diane, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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We went from Australia to Thailand. We had been scheduled to go to Bali, and were thinking of staying there a month or two but we believed strong State Department terrorism warnings for Indonesia effectively canceled our travel health insurance in the country. The warning to take 'extreme caution' and to reconsider the need to travel there sort of put a damper on the relaxation spirit.

We’ve been staying for a couple of months in Chiang Mai and are enjoying it. It's good to be relatively stable after doing so much hopping around in New Zealand and Australia. Our guest house has a website at http://www.pachkit.com/ . For our first visa run to get another 30-day visa we went to Myanmar. After taking a bus to Mae Sai on the border, all we did was walk into Myanmar, have lunch, and walk back. Now we’re in Luang Prabang in Laos, a World Heritage site. On this visa run we’ll have ten days here so we’re seeing more.

There will be pictures of Thailand and Laos in a subsequent post, but for now let's finish our stay in Australia. There are way too many pictures to view all at once since we're combining in a single post what should have been several posts. You may want to visit the albums in separate sessions.

Melbourne

We flew from Glenelg at the beach in Adelaide to metropolitan Melbourne. Just the air at the airport was exciting. We joined a library and got great maps and books for the road. After a couple of days with a Hyundai Getz to help us get around and look for a camper van, we rented an old Britz camper and moved in.

On two days we went in to the Writer's Festival. All the rich conversations and interesting people made a wonderful time in Melbourne.

Melbourne has done a great job of renewal on the Yarra River. The riverfront made for fun getting around. It seemed the innovative architecture was a special expression of cultural differences. It is amazing what Australia has done with corrugated iron especially towards the Outback.

Driving south out of Melbourne, we had stopped for the view at the Bluff Lookout at Barwon Heads, when the van failed to start. So we had a great place to wait and hour or so for a battery replacement before getting out onto the Great Ocean Road.

Our first campground right on the water was bliss.

Visit http://dianeanddave.net/albums/Melbourne/index.html for more Melbourne photos.
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The Great Ocean Road or The world's greatest war memorial

From internet sources:

The Great Ocean Road stretches along the South Eastern coast of Australia between the Victorian cities of Geelong & Warrnambool. It was built during the Great Depression, between World War I and World War II by returned servicemen.

It took thousands of years to shape the wondrous western coast of Victoria - and thousands of 'man - years' to build the road that brings it's glory to tourists from all over the world. The Great Ocean Road is beginning a year of celebrations that will culiminate in it's 75 birthday in November 2007.

For all of its spectacle, The Great Ocean Road is, first and foremost, a war memorial dedicated, to servicemen killed in World War One and built by those who came home from the war fronts. Some 3000 returned "Diggers" had a hand in its creation between 1918 and 1932.

This scenic road is one of the world's most spectacular coastal drives as it winds around golden beaches, spectacular cliff tops, eucalypt rainforests, fern lined gullies, picturesque townships and fast flowing mountain streams. The road passes through some iconic surf beaches including Bells Beach revered by surfers throughout the world. Further along is the 'Shipwreck Coast' with its awesome limestone cliffs and where the spectacular Twelve Apostles stand like sentinels rising majestically from the sea.

Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful.

Saw wild koalas with baby.

Camped right on the ocean. So happy in our little camper. As Kurt Vonnegut has his characters say, 'If this isn't nice, what is?'

We left the coast to go north to the Otway Fly Tree Top Walk at Beech Forest where there were great views from a 25-meter walkway in the rain forest and from a 49-meter tower.

We looked for but didn't see a platypus in the creek and met a woman who has one in her back yard creek.

On the way back down to the coast, we stopped at Ferguson, which seems to be entirely constituted by a produce market with an adjoining old time display. The couches and chairs next to the pot belly stove were where people sat to drink their coffee and read a paper, becoming part of the display.

We got fresh local kiwis, beets, pumpkin. Diane drove the van for the first time, doing an excellent job. Stopped for photos at the Twelve Apostles, a set of shoreside rock towers left after erosion.

Finally got our Blackberry working in Warrnambool and got through to Diane's mom and then to Sara and Guillermo. Sara and Memo are enjoying Claire Alicia and told the exciting story of being stopped by police on Highway 400 on the way to the hospital, taking a while to check the license and then quickly waving them on when they saw Sara already in labor.

Visit http://dianeanddave.net/albums/GreatOceanRoad/index.html for more photos of the Great Ocean Road.

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The Grampians

We stayed a night in Dunkeld, the gateway to the Grampians and in the morning climbed Pickaninny Peak, a great climb in spite of the name. There was a roo at the top who seemed oblivious of us and we watched it for a long time, finally wondering if it perhaps was blind.

In Halls Gap we checked into Caravan Park where the lawns are thick with kangaroos

It rained during the night and the farmers were very grateful. It was a pleasant walk to Brambuk, the excellently designed aboriginal cultural center, where we saw many displays and watched two films. Just imagining the aboriginal pace of life is relaxing. One film was a telling of the creation story of Gariwerd, the aboriginal name for the Grampians.

The second told of the geological history of the area. We had a bush platter at the restaurant, which included kangaroo steak, emu sausages, crocodile on a skewer, and prawn and crocodile ravioli with two different 'bush' chutneys.

There were lots of roos on the walk and again back at the caravan park.

Visit http://dianeanddave.net/albums/Grampians/index.html for more photos of the Grampians.

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Back into Melbourne

Dave had a urology appointment and while in the waiting room was surreally entertained, or at least distracted from his novel, by a Simpsons episode in Japan that had Homer crashing through shoji panels. Damien Bolton, who we were referred to by Dave's California urologist, was a fine, alert and personable fellow who welcomed us. He pronounced Dave's bladder fine and said they had done a good job. We celebrated good health with shiraz and sausages.

Back in Melbourne, we met our old friends Fred and Nicole who we had first met in New Zealand. We had fine breakfast conversation and then a walk out on the pier.

Navigated our way to the ferry terminal for Tasmania, where we arrived early and parked on the esplanade. We were in line with our van by 6:00pm for the 8:00pm ferry. The long line of trucks, campers and cars snaked all the way down the pier past the end of the ship, then back up to the other end of the ship where we drove on. We dragged our sleeping bags stuffed with pillows, food and carryon bags up to the 'ocean view recliners.' Much cheaper than a cabin, and more comfortable than we expected. Each seat had a reading light. We had supper and read in the lounge, until it was time to recline.

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Tasmania

Coming off the ferry early in the morning, we checked in at the caravan park at Mersey Bluff, where we met Ray, a charming Englishman who worked for years in the tourist industry in London and had a lot to say about the joys of Tasmania.

At the cheese store in Burnie we bought Camembert, Brie, bread and a blackberry, fig and balsamic paste. We visited Creative Paper, where Diane took the tour and enjoyed the hands-on aspect, getting to make a sheet of paper herself. In Stanley we found the Stanley Caravan Park which had sites in a great location, was clean and had laptop internet. It was situated at the base of The Nut, an old volcanic plug that forms a huge 150-meter flat-topped circular headland.

At Mt. Cradle we had a beautiful 6.6 km walk around Dove Lake on a well designed trail that was a joy.

We were on our knees exclaiming about something mysteriously pink on a branch below the boardwalk and two lark magpies flew closer, sat closer, walked near and as soon as we stood and walked away they were in our exact spot peering down curiously below the boardwalk. Wanting to see whatever we were looking at. Turned out to be thread.

In Strahan we woke to cold gray rain. We were thankful we were at a powered site with our heater going. We stopped at a book exchange out of a woman's front rooms. Good books and great friendly cats and dogs.

We went into the high country around Queenstown through scorched earth mining country and beautiful rainforests and stopped in Terraleah near a hydroelectric plant. We understand better how they work now. Every time we left the camper we scared wallabies that were grazing around us.

In Snug we met Peter, 30-ish Kiwi living in Oz. We all sat in our van, shared a beer and he used our laptop to get his email. He has worked as a fruit picker and as an engineer in an abattoir. A friendly, enjoyable NSW couple from Newcastle. Bob and Beverly, are here to visit their daughter and we shared a chat.

In the Hobart area we drove up Mount Wellington and Mount Nelson for sweeping panoramic views.

We were up at 6:30 after 100-km winds during the night. At the Salamanca market, we bought candles, bergamot, oat milk. There was an icy biting rain in the afternoon so we didn't linger in a beautiful town of Ross full of limestone buildings built by convicts. They say you can have four seasons in a day in Tasmania. It can snow in the middle of the summer if something blows in off Antarctica. We kept going to Longford where the caravan park is on the banks of the Macquarie River., which is famous for fly fishing.

We toured Brickenden, a well preserved farming village from the 1830’s-40's. It has been in the same family for seven generations and we met Elisa Archer of the seventh generation. Brickenden is still a working farm and it was beautiful and relaxing to stroll around the grounds and gardens. Gardens that have been tended that long seem to have a life of their own.

In Longford Dave met a bunch of fresh teenagers who said hello and first consented to have their pictures taken, then vied for the chance to be in the photo.

On the ferry we ate pears, Camembert, wine and chocolate while the Aussies happily watched their football finals. The Manly Sea Eagles got clobbered by the Melbourne Storm, 34-8. There was rough water and wonderful rocking on boat.

Off the ferry we went straight to Ashley Gardens and began cleaning up and shedding possessions for turning in the campervan the next day, before our flight to Sydney. Arrived in Sydney on time at 9:05 pm and picked up a Hyundai Getz at Budget. It was stressful trying to navigate late at night after a hard day, but we managed finally to find the Blakehurst Motor Inn.

Visit http://dianeanddave.net/albums/Tasmania/index.html for more photos of Tasmania.
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The Blue Mountains and Canberra

In Katoomba in the Blue Mountains we stayed at the YHA, which is a fine structure originally built as a hotel and casino, later used by a church group, then left derelict, and now handsomely restored as a hostel with fine facilities.

At Echo Point the drop off is something like the Grand Canyon. Evans Lookout also had expansive views.

On the road to Canberra, we passed many bicyclists and also vintage cars.

We had a wonder dinner and conversation with Angela and Barney Devlin.

We knew they had met Diane's parents, Don and Lennette, long ago in Arizona, but hadn't realized that they were close friends for most of a year but had later lost touch. The reconnection only came about because Diane's mom was volunteering at an information site when a woman from Canberra came in. Lennette asked if she could get in touch with Angela and Barney but could only provide names, no other contact info. The woman looked up the Devlin name in the phone book and tried Barney who was the first listed. So Angela wrote to Don and Lennette who then told us about them. It's easy to understand how much pleasure Don and Lennette got from their company. They're both interesting people, originally from Country Antrim in Ireland but they emigrated to Canberra in 1973. Anyone who meets Angela should ask her to tell the story of her daughters' weddings.

The next day we visited the Australian National Museum and were very impressed with the innovative and informative displays, including a rotating theater where three four-minute films were shown dealing with land, history and people. Multiple flat screens moving over a large background image were used to great effect. Another couple of films in the Vision Theater made imaginative use of imagery in showing Australian history.

Visit http://dianeanddave.net/albums/BlueMountainsCanberra/index.html for more photos of the Blue Mountains and Canberra.

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Sydney

Back in Sydney we were in a tourist park in Ramsgate Beach where a whole troop of baton twirlers were staying, on their way to a competition.

Ramsgate Beach is across a harbor from the airport. We didn’t find out whether the fishing was good.

At an internet café in Hurstville we spent hours researching tickets, visas and hostels. Because the US State Department's warnings about Indonesia had the effect of canceling our travel insurance, we decided to skip Bali for now and go to Bangkok. We called Garuda to cancel the Bali tickets, canceled our Bali reservations at Pondok Pisces, and booked a YHA hostel in Bangkok.

The flight over Sydney on the way to Bangkok gave us our last views of the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House.

Visit http://dianeanddave.net/albums/Sydney2/index.html for more photos of Sydney.

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As always, we love hearing from you, whether by a comment in the blog or by email (diane [at] dianeanddave.net or dave [at] dianeanddave.net). Even just a few lines would be great. It would be hard to overestimate the pleasure we experience from your messages and if you doubt that just send us your overestimate.

The rest of our Australia trip remains copyright of the author dave-diane, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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• 30 Jul 2007 The East Cape

• 22 Jun 2007 Aside from the Scenery

• 12 Jun 2007 On a sheep farm in the Catlins

• 10 Jun 2007 Sumner and Akaroa

• 10 Jun 2007 Day to day life on the road

• 28 May 2007 Milford, Te Anau, Riverton

• 6 May 2007 Fiji, Auckland to Havelock

All but the earliest one have an associated photo album.

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What a huge country Australia is! We're only seeing a very small part of it. Guess we'll have to come back.

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Sydney

We spent just a week in Sydney after flying in from New Zealand. We'll have more time there on the way out. The first thing Diane noticed after arriving was how much drier Australia is than New Zealand. Even downtown Sydney seemed to be covered with a fine dust. They have been in drought conditions for many years. Also they have a golden sort of light any time of day.

The rough and ready pioneer spirit of the Australians is readily apparent and contrasts with the more gentle civility of New Zealanders we encountered. Aussies pride themselves on straight talk. Diane chatted with Mavis, a delightful widow and veteran
traveler.

We had many walks through domain parks to the Art Gallery, where we saw the Arts of Islam, and to free concerts in the museum.

In the parks we saw flocks of cockatoos and also ibises with long bills.

Of course we saw the famous Harbor Bridge and Sydney Opera House. It is inspiring. It is so alive it pleases us that humans would make that.

The ornate iron grillwork on balconies reminded us of New Orleans.

We stayed at Sydney Star Accomodations where we had the top floor to ourselves in a huge room.

The interesting manager, a charming man by the name of Andrew, is a Polish photographer who is going in October to be a United Nations photographer for a year in Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan at $5K a week.

A Sydney neighborhood called The Rocks had an annual Aroma Festival that is very popular and had lots of live music and street performers.

Visit http://dianeanddave.net/albums/Sydney/index.html for all Sydney photos.

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Glenelg in Adelaide

Our strategy for such a large country was to fly to three separate states and explore from their capitals. After the excitement of arriving in Sydney, we flew to South Australia's Adelaide on the coast.

We were fortunate to be there during their SALA Festival, a celebration of South Australian Living Artists, with hundreds of venues throughout the state. We went to aboriginal art openings with speakers and music and spoke with some artists.

We took up residence in an old Victorian hotel, now a hostel, for a month out at the beach in the suburb of Glenelg.

We enjoyed the ocean walks in the morning, the laid back holiday seaside atmosphere, the nearby library and a used book store and an internet cafe just across the street.

The easy setup let us get some financial housekeeping business handled. After covering so much ground in New Zealand, we were content with the easy logistics of the town and the convenient transportation into the Adelaide CBD (central business district).

We made a friend from France, Mériem, who is a chef and has been traveling for several years.

We also met Matty, a chef from Perth in Western Australia, who was great fun and very interesting guy. He had a wise-cracking maturity.

Visit http://dianeanddave.net/albums/Glenelg/index.html for all Glenelg and Adelaide photos.

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Flinders Ranges

South Australia includes the borders to the great Outback deserts. Having found a map of this border area that showed how it could be done in a 2-wheel drive we rented a car and took off. We had in mind the destination of a former sheep station, Rawnsley Park Station, that had been converted to an ecological reserve and resort. It is set in the Flinders Ranges, one of the oldest mountain ranges in the world.

We were surprised to discover that our car insurance was inactive after dusk as soon as we left the most populated area because the kangaroos come out of the hills at dusk to feed and actually like to congregate near the roads. And many accidents happen. We drove northwest and stayed in Quorn, a very nice dry western type town. I asked where everybody was and was told that they were all in their back yards gardening because they had had a good rain. We met wonderful ladies at the local library that is shared with the school.

We went on to Hawker, a provisioning hub for the outback. We bought mosguito netting and hats for the very persistent mosquitos. I have enjoyed measuring my vacation at the Grand Canyon as a two hat vacation. I think my hat with mosquito netting is fabulous.

We bought port port out of a barrel by the liter in a rinsed out milk jug. They drink it a lot here and it was good. We viewed a diorama of the rock formation we were going to hike at called the Wilpena Pound. There are a just handful of living diorama artists in the world today.

Rawnsley Park station in the Flinders Ranges

Aboriginal rock paintings

In mid-flight

As far out back as we got

There are a number of abandoned homesteads throughout the country. The farmers and the water moved on.

Morning bliss outside our cabin

Rental caravans are available in most parks

Diane pointing at a rock up in a tree. It looked like a scarecrow.

Dave capturing wildflowers

Yellow-footed rock wallabies

These guys have a blue tongue

Check us out!

Visit http://dianeanddave.net/albums/Flinders/index.html for all Flinders photos.

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As always, we love hearing from you, whether by a comment in the blog or by email (diane [at] dianeanddave.net or dave [at] dianeanddave.net).

Sydney and South Australia remains copyright of the author dave-diane, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Something is preventing us from sending email from the current connection. We have a bunch of drafts waiting to be sent but we'll have to wait until our next laptop access.
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The scenery is of course one of the main reasons to visit New Zealand. Whether dramatic World Heritage sites or ordinary sheep farms, the views are outstanding.

The New Zealand people are also an attraction in their own right. Friendly and hospitable, easy to meet and readily helpful, they mostly give the lie to a supermarket advertising campaign that says they don't know how lucky they are.

My picture taking naturally gravitates to scenic shots and it's easy for me to forget that other things may be interesting, so this will be about the non-scenic aspects of our travel. The link at the end has a lot of pictures.

Backpackers hostels
New Zealand is a backpackers paradise. Where we stay is sometimes called a hostel, sometimes a lodge, but mostly just a backpackers. There seem to be several in every community of any size and many in more remote areas. We're more car-packers than backpackers but the term is used generically for low-cost lodgings. Some of the guests come in cars, either rented or bought, others by bus or even hitchhiking. People with a camper van also opt for backpackers once in a while.

Backpackers vary considerably but what they have in common are shared kitchens, showers and toilets. They usually have doubles, twins and dorm rooms. Some also have 'ensuite' rooms with their own bathroom but we've been happy enough with shared facilities. Mostly we pay about US$35 a night for a double room, but it has gone from a low of US$32 to an infrequent high of US$50.

We get to meet a lot of travelers in the hostels, from the UK, Australia, the US, Germany, France, Switzerland, Holland, the Czech Republic, Israel, China.

We did get tired of trying to read with the often inadequate lighting and having to keep charging batteries for our portable reading lights. So we finally bought a small desk lamp. This is something a car-packer can do that a true backpacker couldn't. Occasionally our rooms will have no electrical outlet and usually there's only one. But we can use our laptop in the lounge in those cases. Fortunately, the laptop is a universal voltage model, as is my shaver, and those are the only two appliances we carried before getting the lamp. The reading lamp will be useful in Australia and we'll leave it behind when we go to Indonesia.

Heating in the hostels ranges from toasty to frigid. We had one a while back that registered 49° in the morning. That one had a heater that we thought shouldn't be left on all night. At the next hostel the heater could be left on, but it was a low-power unit that left us at 58° in the morning. Many of the heaters have a built-in timer that keeps them from being on continuously. There's always enough blankets, though, and we wear long silk underwear and even fleece jackets if we need to.

Driving on the left
Getting used to driving here has been surprisingly easy, except for the dreaded right turn in traffic. This is so counterintuitive that I have to think about it each time: "I'm about to do this dangerous thing that they require over here and say is actually safe." I'm better now about distinguishing the turn signals from the windscreen wipers, but in the beginning I frequently gave a flash of my wipers before I began a turn. When I see a quick swipe of another car's wipers now, I think "There goes an American or other foreigner signaling a turn."

Traveler's internet
Internet access is often available in the hostels, but usually only using their computers, not our laptop. We pay anywhere from NZ$3 to NZ$8 an hour, usually NZ$5 or NZ$6 which is US$3.50 or US$4.20. Most internet cafes provide access only on their computers but sometimes we can plug our laptop in.

It's so much better when we have laptop access. That way we can download all our mail at once and then read it and compose replies offline. Also because of the security controls we set up on the laptop, it's extremely awkward and time-consuming to do any banking transactions on a public computer.

The security on our laptop is such that if it is lost or stolen, we might lose a few days of pictures (not a small loss!), but none of our private information such as passwords, account numbers, health records or anything to facilitate identity theft would be accessible. Most travelers we've met don't carry laptops, but I suspect those who do have insufficient security.

Having such intermittent access to emails takes adjustment too. Sometimes we prepare an email message many days before we get a chance to send it. Having been used to checking mail at least twice a day, going days without checking is a minor hardship (very minor in the greater context). The mail we receive may be a week old or more, and it may be another week before we can reply.

Public facilities
The visitor centers, run by the Department of Conservation, are exceptionally well designed, attractive and informative.

Public toilets are available everywhere, in the smallest towns and on scenic trails. A camping van without a toilet would be entirely practical. Many toilets, both public and in hostels, have both low-power and high-power flush buttons as a water-saving feature.

Museums have been very good, even those in small towns. Kids in one museum were very excited until they had to sit down for a story.

NZ libraries are great in the large towns. Small town libraries are fine, too, with smaller selections.

Paying
A US credit card works virtually everywhere. Not all small towns have an ATM machine and some hostels require cash, but for the most part the New Zealand eftpos system is in use and is faster than a transaction in the US. Usually no signature is required.

A welcome practice is no tipping, so you can mentally deduct 20% from the menu.

Pronunciation of place names
In Fiji I surprised the fellow who was giving us a little lesson in Fijian and he asked why I could pronounce it so well. It was because I was applying Swahili rules and there was a good fit. I wish the same were true of Maori. Actually the fit with traditional Maori may not be so bad, but Maori-looking names here sometimes have a distinctly English pronunciation. The Maori language and culture is honored here in public signs and in the displays in museums and visitor centers but we have had no interaction with Maoris other than in souvenir shops.

Photo gallery

See http://dianeanddave.net/albums/AsideFromTheScenery/index.html for a lot of miscellaneous non-scenic pictures. Click the first one and then use right and left arrow keys. Down arrow may help in showing the caption. There are so many you may want to breeze through them fairly quickly.

Remember that we greatly enjoy hearing from you, whether by a comment here or by email (diane [at] dianeanddave.net or dave [at] dianeanddave.net).

Your messages remind us of our connections and keep us from feeling untethered. Many thanks to all of you who have subscribed, sent comments or emailed.

Dave

Aside from the Scenery remains copyright of the author dave-diane, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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We're happy and mostly healthy, even though we've been frustrated both by the technical issues that get in the way of email and internet communication and by the personal ones - inertia, dismay for not having done more, failure to anticipate how much it takes just to travel around, let alone write about it.

I say 'mostly healthy' because Dave had a few days of stomach upset in Fiji after having been there a couple of weeks and deciding to drink the tap water. But it cleared up soon and he continued to drink tap water. Diane thrived in Fiji but since the transition to New Zealand she has had stomach upset and headaches. Staying several days in restful places, as we are now, does her a world of good, so she's getting better but we'll check with a pharmacy or clinic in a day or two if she's not much better.

We were prepared to be without internet connections in Fiji but we hadn't planned on being without electricity. Our issues with getting our old email integrated with our current email continue to plague us. I thought if we could only get a geek to help us we'd get it handled, but we got one in Auckland that gave up after several days. So we won't be able to search old email including some addresses until Dave stumbles on a solution or we find a more knowledgeable geek.

Our first stop in Fiji was at the Bekana Garden Island Resort on a very small island just off Lautoka on the west coast.

We had breakfast and dinner included each day and had our first kava ceremony. We had our own little 'bure' or cabin.

The town of Lautoka was just a few minutes on the little launch that went every couple of hours.

There Diane bought her first piece of Fijian clothing.

The Fijian people are so very warm and friendly. We enjoyed them immensely. Here's Diane with David, one of the Bekana staff.

Leaving Bekana for Ovalau had us on a boat that stopped in shallow water for us to jump off and carry our bags ashore.

Ovalau, an island east of the main island of Viti Levu, is where we had our only pre-reserved place: Bobo's Farm. This is a 'bush' farm, nothing like an Iowa farm. Here's the little cabin we stayed in (no electricity or hot water).

Lack of hot water wasn't a problem though. Cold showers are mostly welcome in Fiji.

Bobo is a Fijian who has a German wife, Karin. They met in Fiji but lived in Germany for a few years until Karin wanted to come back to Fiji. Karin cooks wonderful dishes with fresh produce from the farm.

They were wonderful hosts. We no longer remember who instigated this dancing silliness.

Bobo is a deep well of information on Fijian customs and history. The farm has orchids, hibiscus, bird of paradise, pink ginger, red ginger, white ginger, frangipani, giant ferns, wild and giant queen pineapples, yucca, cassava, taro, kumquat, mandarins, bread fruit, mahogany that grows 3 and 4 stories high in 6 years. The beach is a 20-minute walk.

The local kids were a delight.

We could do some hiking, sit in the cool stream, read and nap. We were introduced to rugby and enjoyed watching Fiji win the Hong Kong 7 championship. One afternoon Bobo took us to the primary school, where the children sang and we gave out our trinkets in response to quiz questions. The teacher had us guess to find the other boy in a class of 8 girls and 2 boys. Since they we about 9 or 10 years old, all had short hair and wore traditional Fijian skirts called sulus, this wasn't an easy guess.

The kids guessed Dave's age and answered in English when the teacher asked first whether Diane was a man or a woman and then whether Dave was a man or a woman.

Ovalau, as all of Fiji, is filled with lush vegetation. We climbed nearly to the top of one of the nearby hills on a hike with Bobo.

At the end of the climb we had a pretty decent view, as usual including other islands.

From Bobo's farm we went to Levuka town on the eastern side of Ovalau island where we stayed at the Royal Hotel. Levuka used to be the capital of Fiji in the 1800's. The Royal is the oldest continuously operating hotel in the Pacific, dating from the 1860's, and is colorful in the old colonial style.

Finally we had electricity in our room so we could at least use our computer liberally off line and keep our rechargeable batteries topped up.

Levuka is a quiet little port town.

From Levuka we headed back to Nadi (pronounced Nandi). Driving by bus in Fiji reminded us in many ways of Nicaragua.

Nadi isn't an especially attractive town but even an ordinary town in Fiji has its interests.

Our guest house was out of town just a few minutes from the beach.

Auckland was a different world right from the airport. We were greeted by a Maori carving that is a blessing for visitors.

We stayed in a nice area called Mt. Eden and walked up the top for a rare view of Auckland in the fog.

Mt. Eden is one of the many volcanos that dot Auckland and cows graze in the crater.

We though this driveway sign was pretty cute.

At the Auckland museum we got a preview of Australia by watching an aboriginal dance presentation.

That's Diane in the center of the audience here.

When we went to a car fair to check out cars and campers it was raining and we found travelers eager to sell because they were leaving soon.

Envisioning ourselves in a similar position, plus considerations about sleeping in an unheated vehicle in the cold southland winter, made it easier for us to decide to travel by car and hostels.

So we drove to Rotorua where steam is coming out of the ground virtually everywhere. The designated geothermal areas have the most activity.

But there's also steam right in a neighborhood.

And elsewhere too, where there's usually a little fenced off enclosure.

It seems unlikely that unpredictable geothermal activity would confine itself to areas off the designated pathways.

We found lots of interesting scenery on the way to Wellington.

The ferry from Wellington to Picton was huge - hundreds of cars. This view at the Picton destination gives an idea of its size.

This is before leaving and shows the round Parliament building in the background.

The views from the ferry were fabulous. Here's the South Island in the distance.

We loved seeing the layers formed by the hills.

Now we're taking it fairly easy in Havelock.

We drove here on beautiful Queen Charlotte Drive, through vegetation that reminded us of Fiji.

In a while we'll be heading down to the bottom of the South Island.

Let us hear from you - we want to know how life goes on back home. If you can join us on the South Island for a week or two, give us some choices of dates.

"We love you and we support you on the journey."

Dave and Diane

Fiji, Auckland to Havelock remains copyright of the author dave-diane, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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