Tasmania - Out Back of the Outback

On January 5th, after having driven over 1200 miles, I returned the "hire car" to Sydney, popped out to the airport and caught an afternoon flight to Hobart. Upon arrival, I hired another car (the airport is a ways out of the city) and sought accommodations for the night. The drive into the city wasn't like the drive from DIA. There was very little traffic and almost no buildings, much less housing.

The Tasman Bridge. Electronic signage changes the directionality of the six lanes to accommodate greater traffic flow into or out of the city. Cheaper and faster than setting concrete barriers, and people seem to adjust to it without much difficulty. There was a surprising amount of traffic leaving the city at the end of the workday. With the paucity of housing I saw on the way in from the airport, where the heck were all the people going???

I hadn't made room reservations ahead of time, and as luck would have it the two hostels I found in the phone book did not have openings. So I stayed in a motel, which wasn't that far over my budget. The next day, I toured the city a bit, and on the second day began a 1400 mile round trip through several national parks.






















On the way to taking the picture of the bridge, I passed Government House. Where the Governor lives. The grounds were marked "Private," but the gate was open and people were driving in. It is located very near to the Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens, so maybe they were looking for parking.






















The Hobart harbour is surrounded by hills. The streets, therefore, are some of the more unique I encountered. Driving on the left, to get to a house on this street you go downhill on one side of the street, and to return you go uphill on the other side. Literally. I should have taken a picture of another street which cut across the hill, rather than following it down and up. Each side of the street was on a different level, with a fence between the lanes.


























































The harbour area was a good place to find food and tour boats. One of these tall ships sailed into Wineglass Bay when I hiked there (picture later).






















Tasmania is pretty much one huge national park. Virtually the entire southwestern portion of the state is wilderness. A two hour drive north of the city is Freycinet (fray-shih-NAY) National Park, one of the first for Tasmania and one of the most popular (probably because of its proximity to Hobart). The Park campground was full, as is usual at this time of year, so I was directed to a free camping area a ways north at Friendly Beach. I got there early enough to be able to watch the surf for a few hours before sunset. The first shot is of one of the beaches inside the park proper.






















The view from my campsite at Isaac's Point on Friendly Beach.






















When the surf pounds the beach, sand is stirred into the foam. This creates a rather long-lasting "bubble bath." On the eastern coast of Australia, the storms offshore were so severe in late November that the foam was over 6 feet thick, and moved with a wave action all its own. Lifeguards had to chase people out of it because of its depth and the fact that you can't swim in foam.






















Wineglass Bay. Great camping on the beach.

Rollin', Rollin', Rollin'

From Sydney, I rented a car and drove south into the Snowy Mountains, with the intention of climbing Mt. Kosciuszko. ("Mount Kosciuszko, located in the Snowy Mountains, in Kosciuszko National Park, is the highest mountain in Australia (not including its external territories), at 2,228 m above sea level. It was named by the Polish explorer Count Paul Strzelecki in 1840, in honour of the Polish national hero General Tadeusz Kościuszko, because of its perceived resemblance to the Kościuszko Mound in Krakow[1]." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Kosciuszko)

This is ski country, and compared to what we in Colorado are used to, it's quite poor. The mountains are not very tall but are very rocky; the season is very short. Once again, it was a realization of how good we have it in Colorado, and the USA.




Perisher Valley - one of Australia's most popular ski areas.






















This is the top of Mount Kosciuszko peeking over the horizon.






















Along the trail, I got to cross the Snowy River.






















3/4 of the way down the trail, a thunderstorm rolled up the valley. It sounded like cannon fire. I decided that discretion was the better part of valor, having experienced storms on mountaintops before. I got back to the car just as it hit.






















Along the trail were swarms of flies. Not the biting midges so infamous along the coastlines but just annoying, little heat-seekers.






















The next best bet was to drive to Thredbo, about 45 minutes away and south of the mountain, and take the ski lift to within an hour of the top. But they weren't allowing anyone up because of the same storm, even though I couldn't see it from this side. (By the way, the corrugated iron roof is once again seen here, as it is a very popular material in Australia.)






















The ski runs.






















After camping out for two days, I drove north to the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney. This was really hilly country, as this next picture shows.






















On the way there, I went through Cowra, the sight of a prisoner of war camp during WWII. Besides Japanese soldiers, which other POW's were held there? Nope - not Germans. Italians. After the war, many of the Japanese settled in this region. This camp was the site of the largest Japanese prisoner breakout attempt of the war, and possibly in history. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cowra) After the ensuing battle, the Japanese dead were buried nearby, the cemetery eventually being ceded to Japan as a gesture of peace. Japan was so moved by this that an offer was made to construct a Japanese Garden in the community. The result was the largest such garden in the Southern Hemisphere. In recognition of this relationship, Cowra was designated as the home for a replica of the UN Peace Bell - an honor usually given to a nation's capital.



































































































Echo Point and The Three Sisters, just outside of the resort town of Katoomba.






















The Jamison Valley.






















The platform cantilevered out over the cliff - something I didn't realize until I got there. Not real comfortable, this view!






















What a sense of history.






















At the opposite end of the Jamison Valley is another landmark famous in Australia - Scenic World. "... a tourist complex in the southwest of the town. This site is home to the steepest funicular railway in the world, the Katoomba Scenic Railway, which was originally built to facilitate coal and oil shale mining in the Jamison Valley. Scenic World also offers the Scenic Skyway cable car, which travels over an arm of the Jamison Valley and offers views of Katoomba Falls and Orphan Rock. In 2004 the original Skyway car was replaced by a new car with a liquid crystal panel floor, which abruptly becomes transparent while the car travels. In 1983 construction began at the site on a rollercoaster called the Orphan Rocker; the track was completed, but this attraction has never been opened to the public." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Sisters_%28Australia%29)






















Cowra was my first experience with back-in parking. For someone not very used to left-hand driving in the first place, this was a fun challenge.

Sydney - New Year's Eve

On December 29, I flew from Christchurch to Auckland. After an overnight stay, it was on to Sydney. The train service into the city is quite nice and I stayed in a hotel in the suburbs - a bit too far away, actually. The next day I took the train into the city on New Year's Eve day.

As one might expect, the crowds grew exponentially with each passing hour. I knew, from previous research, that certain areas along the Circular Quay would have restricted entry, so I checked them out early while the walkways still allowed relatively easy passage. Tickets were needed to enter these areas, and one had to obtain tickets weeks in advance. For example, there were only 6500 people allowed around The Opera House.








































Over 1.5 million people were later estimated to have been in the Circular Quay. News reports the next day noted that only 65 people were arrested, which was described as "remarkable." I agree, considering the drinking that started quite early in the morning. What concerned me was that crowd control was inadequate. Once the walkways became so crowded that no one could move, the security personnel started telling people that they had to leave the Quay. Unfortunately, no one told the staff at the gates to stop letting people into the area. Getting out took a lot of pushing and shoving, which I am not proud to say was what I had to do. It was unpleasant for anyone with children.

I eventually found my way to Potts Point, which is north of the harbor and hilly. It afforded a panoramic view, which turned out to be necessary to see the fireworks off the skyscrapers. Again, I was amazed at the number of falling-down drunk people in the park, carrying a 24-pack of beer under each arm. Was I that carefree when I was young?






















As I walked to the Point, I went through Martin Place, which has a rather large fountain. Someone had put detergent into the water - a popular trick around the world - and the fire brigade was called in because cars were slipping as they went through the foam. (You can almost make them out in the second picture.) This young lady entreated the crowd to join her in a romp. The crowd responded with a chant to "fall down," but she didn't acquiesce.








































From the 9 pm show. The park sits above a wharf used by the Royal Australian Navy, and the first picture shows one of their support ships in the foreground. I didn't take still shots of the midnight display, choosing instead to make a video. All 13 minutes of it. It meant holding the camera above my head, bracing it against the fence, and my arms were burning at the end.

One More Balloon Ride

I wanted to see the mountains one more time, but we really didn't get that close. Here we are readying the balloon. That's our pilot, Dean, exiting the basket. This is the largest passenger balloon available, and the envelope was huge!






















This was the view toward Aoraki/Mt. Cook. You can almost see it!






















We attained an altitude of 5000 feet in order to see the mountains, and for my second flight it was quite thrilling. Not TOO scary, either. The landing was well done - we didn't tip over - but the field was being irrigated, so we got wet feet. We sure scared some sheep that morning!




Here we are deflating the balloon. We did a lot of work! Of course, there was the traditional champagne but no breakfast. Man, were we hungry when we got back to the city.

Getting to Christchurch & Edoras

There wasn't much to report on between Tekapo and Christchurch. Unless you count the giant fish and the Cookie factory stop. After passing through Fairlie and Geraldine (famous for fishing, cheese, chocolate and glass blowing), we paralleled the Rangitata River. This first pic is of the Canterbury Plains outside of Ashburton and a view of Mt. Somers. Canterbury is quite fertile and heavily farmed.






















Further up the road is Rakaia, world-famous for it's salmon fishing. Not native to New Zealand, the locals determined that, since trout fishing was such a good tourist draw in New Zealand, something unique would help their community to thrive. The idea took off, and the town could afford to erect this statue to their entrepreneurship. The chinook salmon are wild, traveling from the sea up the Rakaia river to spawn.



























































Ok - so the bridge is a bit old. It's also one lane, with a sharp curve at the other side!






















Just outside of Christchurch is the Cookie Time Factory, a great place for "seconds" (broken or misshapen cookies). You can even order their most popular cookie online (Original Chocolate Chunk)! http://www.cookietime.co.nz/wbc.html



























I did not take advantage of opportunities to go on "Lord of the Rings" tours before Christchurch because of my conversations with travelers who had. Most were disappointed because they expected to see the setting exactly as they saw in the movies. Well, of course, the sets are no longer there except for Hobbiton. That setting has been preserved more than others (although the landscaping has been removed) because Peter Jackson anticipated that it would be needed for the next movie in the series, The Hobbit, which is currently in production.

However, I did go on the Edoras tour out of Christchurch because I knew that the setting itself would be exactly the same as what we saw in the movie (without the city of Edoras, of course). It was well-worth the time and money, I thought. The owner of the land was paid $1 million NZ because he could not pasture his cattle and horses during the entire filming process, plus some of his horses were used in the film.

This is the long view as we approached the valley (which is a gorgeous locale, incidentally). "Edoras, " or Mt. Sunday will be more visible in the pictures that follow.


























































As you can see below, the top of Mt. Sunday is not a very big area. So how did Peter Jackson place an entire city there? Why, through the magic of Hollywood. The set was first seen as Aragorn and Gandalf ride up to it. A long shot can make a smaller object look larger. The filming on the set was done on Mt. Sunday, but the Golden Hall was a facade. All of the interior shots were made in a studio, and whenever the camera is looking out the doors at the landscape, it was inserted digitally. The mountains and other aspects of the terrain, however, are totally real. I could die there.






















When it came time to tear down the set, the ground was littered with nails and screws. But no worries - the tourists who followed picked them up!

Our tour guide told us this story and lamented that he looks for some items every time he visits, but had given up because he assumed they had all been found. However, I knew that the ground "churns" due to warming and cooling. Sure enough, without looking very hard at all I found half a dozen well-rusted nails and screws (Can you say "eBay?")

Factoid: In "Return of the King," when we see the Rohirrim charge the orc armies attacking Gondor, most of the riders were women. The men were working the ranches! Incidentally, all of the "men" and horses that get killed (especially by the Nazgul) were inserted digitally.

Factoid: Peter Jackson had all of the tussocks on Mt. Sunday removed for the filming. They were temporarily planted in a hill opposite from these views of the mount. When the set was dismantled, Peter not only had the tussocks replaced but added hundreds more. Tussock grass is a native species which is being dominated by a similar grass imported from Africa, originally thought to be a better feed for cattle.

Dunedin to Lake Tekapo

After Dunedin, we headed along the coast to Damaru before turning inland toward Lake Tekapo. One of the famous landmarks on the coast is the Moeraki boulders, described as "septarian concretions." [Don't you just love science?] "The rock comprising the bulk of a boulder is riddled with large cracks called "septaria" that radiate outward from a hollow core lined with scalenohedral calcite crystals. The process or processes that created septaria within Meoraki Boulders, and in other septarian concretions, remain an unresolved matter for which a number of possible explanations have been proposed. These cracks radiate and thin outward from the centre of the typical boulder and are typically filled with an outer (early stage) layer of brown calcite and an inner (late stage) layer of yellow calcite spar, which often, but not always, completely fills the cracks. Rare Moeraki Boulders have a very thin innermost (latest stage) layer of dolomite and quartz covering the yellow calcite spar." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moeraki_Boulders)

These boulders were embedded in the cliffs and have been exposed as the coastline has eroded. Some are 6 feet across.






































Just outside of Twizel and south of Lake Tekapo is Lake Pukaki. We paused to get what was supposed to be a great view of Mt. Aoraki/Mt. Cook. Throughout this entire trip, it seemed that whenever I got close to the mountains it was overcast. This is the best "peek" we got (pun intended).





















Another famous landmark is The Church of the Good Shepard, just outside of the Village. We were extremely fortunate to get this picture because the parking lot is usually crowded with tourist buses (and it was, shortly after this photo was taken) and the church swarmed with people. Also, the weather cooperated.






















The Village, from the top of Mt. John. It is generally quite dry in this region.






















The Village, up close. This area is being developed somewhat, but I was surprised at how relatively undeveloped it was. During the summer, the Village is very crowded, and what is being built is mostly larger resort complexes.






















Mt. John. There is an observatory on top, which I visited one night (11:30 pm to 2:30 am!). It turns out that this is one of the best places in New Zealand and the world to place an observatory, and this one has a special grant to study the Clouds of Magellan. Only visible from the southern hemisphere, they appear as two high clouds in our atmosphere - very faint and smoky - except they obviously don't move. Very strange to see.

The Observatory's grant is titled "Microlensing Observations in Astrophysics," and the abbreviation of MOA is appropriate for the setting in New Zealand. This link (http://www.phys.canterbury.ac.nz/moa/) includes a great shot of the telescope dome and some details about the Polish national who headed the study until his death in April, 2007. (Bohdan Paczynski's microlensing technique was responsible for the discovery of the first terrestrial planet outside of our solar system - quite a big deal!)

From Wikipedia, "The Magellanic Clouds' radial velocity and proper velocity were recently accurately measured by a team from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics to produce a 3-D velocity measurement that clocked their passage through the Milky Way galaxy in excess of 480km/s (300 miles per second) using input from Hubble Telescope. This unusually high velocity seems to imply that they are in fact not bound to the Milky Way, and many of the presumed effects of the Magellanic Clouds have to be revised.^[5]

Aside from their different structure and lower mass, they differ from our Galaxy in two major ways. First, they are gas-rich; a relatively higher fraction of their mass is hydrogen and helium compared to the Milky Way.^[6] They are also more metal-poor than the Milky Way; the youngest stars in the LMC and SMC have a metallicity of 0.5 and 0.25 times solar, respectively.^[7] Both are noted for their nebulae and young stellar populations, but as in our own Galaxy their stars range from the very young to the very old, indicating a long stellar formation history.(Chaisson and McMillan)

The Large Magellanic Cloud was host galaxy to a supernova (SN 1987A), the brightest observed in over three centuries." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clouds_of_magellan)

Although NASA offers a good close-up shot (http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap980124.html), I prefer a wider view because it more closely represents they way I saw them that night (http://www.spacew.com/gallery/image002455.html).

This could be Colorado. The sky seemed much bluer than back home, probably because New Zealand lies beneath a weak ozone layer. That's also why New Zealand has a UV rating of 8 out of 10 (I may have mentioned this before about Australia.).