Perth, Pinnacles, and MarsuPials!

Greetings from Perth, the city that brags about being the most remote city in the world! Below is a view of the city center from a lake near Travis and Maggie's, that I have enjoyed walking around each morning, early, before it gets really warm. The lake is a refuge for birds and has black swans, herons, ducks, grebes, and other water birds in abundance.

The swans have been of particular interest to me, as they are in their season of having no flight feathers, so they spend a great deal of time on the water, where they are the safest. They curl their long, graceful necks over their back in a sort of figure eight, tuck their red beak under a wing and go to sleep. In the early morning there are dozens of them, just sort of bobbing around on the lake---sound asleep!The Australians are proud of who they are and seem eager to offer that they are very relaxed and easy-going. They even sell hamburger in the shape of their continent! (This was dinner, prepared by Maggie.)

Last of all, on the Travis and Maggie home front, I have been delighted to listen to Travis play his didgeridoo---it has a wonderful l-0-w resonance---a sort of haunting sound. Additionally it is a beautiful, hand-decorated instrument.

Perth is the site of Trav's current work, so Maggie, Travis, and Finn are settled into a charming townhouse, just two train stops from the "city", which really does have tall buildings, fountains, sculptures, museums, art galleries, and the various other features of a city (even a city that is a long, long, long way from any other city!).
This elaborate building houses the Swan Bells, a set of bells donated to Perth by St. Martin in the Fields cathedral in London. The bells were cast in the 1700s and have had a few added to make a complete set of eighteen. We went up in the tower one day to watch the bell-ringers and the bells. I was especially interested because Ruth Ann and I went to a concert at St. Martins in London in November on our way home from our freighter trip! (Just how small is our world?)

Just across the park from the bell tower in Perth is this wheel, which is a smaller version of the London Eye, which Ruth Ann and I rode when in London. Perth's would give a great view of the river and the harbor as well as the city. Don't you love the palm trees?

Now, for a few basics that all of us non-Australians expect to see as soon as we get to Australia! Here is how the bush looks---just like overgrown forest. There was a bush fire in a park, right here in the city, a week ago. We saw the burned over area later and noticed the fire had gone right along the ground, cleaning up the dead material. It appeared that the living trees were relatively undamaged.Next is a gum tree. They are huge, beautiful, and tricky to photograph because they are so tall. The kookaburra for this tree was off looking for some bush tucker (food)---my apologies!

The first weekend we were back in Perth after our New Zealand cruise, we headed up the west coast to see the Pinnacles. This is an area of thousands (truly!) of limestone formations of varying sizes (see my blue hat peeking over a pinnacle in the photo above). Our family is always interested in rocks and these were indeed that-interesting.

Travis kindly posed (above and below) with a few of the formations....

The Pinnacles border the Indian Ocean so we had to play in it a bit, even though it wasn't a very safe or friendly beach. For those of us who have always lived in land-locked states (as Maggie so aptly put it), sand and surf are real magnets!

Finn and I are contemplating our wet sandy feet...
Finn's mom is explaining to him that the next stop west is 6000 kilometers or more and that is too far to swim---

Now, back to basics!

Emu-in-the-wild country and we did see two! Just their heads were visible, bobbing along over the short bush but they were there! How exciting!

Next was a kangaroo, in the wild. Wow! Were we excited!! He was very large, just sitting on the ridge. What a great day! Then, as we began our drove back down the coast to Perth, we saw six wallabies, frolicking in a grassy field. They were too far away to photograph, and it was getting dusky, but what a treat to watch them having fun, ka-boing-ing about!!!

The following weekend we took a ferry to Rottnest Island, west of Perth, in the Indian Ocean. When Dutch settlers discovered it, they thought it was inhabited with cat-sized rats, hence the name. However, the inhabitants are actually quokkas, cat-sized marsupials. They have a rather rat-like face and look like little, fat, kangaroos. Even though they are nocturnal. we saw a number of the 15,000 or so residents of the tiny island.

Finn loved petting one of the little marsupials...
The rest of that day was spent playing in the Indian Ocean. Note that Travis and Finn are wearing "rashees":---special heavy nylon swimwear that keeps out the UV rays. Because the whole in the ozone layer is over Australia, the sun here is especially intense and dangerous.

Finn's suit has long arms and legs which also minimize the scratching from rocks and sand.

So---signing off from west of western Australia! Later today we are off to the southland to enjoy
Australian wine country and their forests of huge trees. Nice to visit with you and thanks for tuning in! Fondly, Penny

Holiday Cruise Around New Zealand

Traveling from Sydney to New Zealand by cruise ship was sheer delight! We were at sea for Christmas and Santa found us! Travis arrived equipped with a tiny tree that had lights and ornaments and Maggie produced Christmas stockings, so we had a family Christmas in my cabin. Then Finn went to see Santa, who had remained on the ship to give the 300+ children on the ship individual, hand-wrapped gifts! The ship was decorated with a number of beautifully-decorated trees, lots of pointsettas, and a large gingerbread village in the centrum--a sort of atrium that was six stories high, located in the center of the ship.

Our first port of call was Bay of Islands, a scenic bay containing over 150 islands. Our ship was anchored in the bay and we tendered ashore in the life boat to which we were assigned. Travis remarked that he was happy our boat was used to tender because we could be confident that the motor worked and the cables that let the boat down to the water were not rusty!

"Rhapsody of the Seas", at anchor at Bay of Islands, New Zealand

Finn loved the first two days at sea, as he could sit on a pillow in my cabin window ledge and watch the water and other ships. He was a good little sailor and soon had friends among the staff all over the huge ship---they all enjoyed his enthusiastic "high fives." A lovely staff member from Jamaica was his sitter six evenings. Samona's arrival was always met with a huge grin.

We took several shore excursions in New Zealand. Maggie and I went to see a grotto with glow-worms on the ceiling and a forest of Kauri Trees, great trees that challenge the Redwoods as to height and girth. They are very straight with clear trunks (no knots) and were popular with the British for the masts on sailing ships.

Maggie (in red) and I (in blue) loved the huge trees, tree-ferns, and all the rest of the lush vegitation that grew between the kauri trees.

We also visited reserves for Royal Albatross and Yellow-eyed penguins. Interesting birds and interesting locations, as they were right on the sea coast. The penguin reserve was also a farm and had lots of interesting vegetation...below is a PP (parent penguin) with its baby.
Penny at the Penguin Preserve

My favorite area in New Zealand was seeing the sounds on the southwest corner of the south island (the farthest south I've ever been---43 degrees, I believe). They are very similar to the fjords of Norway, in fact some of the area is called "fiord country"---just different spelling. Different from Norway is the fact that the vegetation grows abundantly right down to the water in New Zealand and the area is essentially un-inhabited whereas Norwegian fjords are dottewith farms and villages and apt to have bare, rocky areas.

Here are views from Dusky and Milford Sounds, New Zealand:

Maggie and I had fun shopping for knitting yarn that has possum fur in it! Possums are considered pests in NZ so they have learned that making yarn from their fur creates a lovely, warm product---so possum fur yarn we both now have. Clever use, right?

My advice to you: The next time someone invites you to go to Zealand with them, pack your bag, pull out your passport, and be on your way! (The next report will be from Perth.)

"Down Under" in Sydney

Hi! After a few weeks of no posts, I have pictures and tales to post! I traveled to Sydney, Australia with Maggie (daughter-in-law) and 18-month-old grandson, Finn, on December 18th to meet Travis, who works in Perth. (Maggie and Finn had been in the US visiting family for about six weeks.) You can probably guess that flying non-stop from LA to Sydney is L-O-N-G but add a toddler! What a hilarious time we had but how glad we were to see Travis in the Sydney airport!!! We had lots of luggage and managed to haul luggage, toddler, car seat, hand luggage, and ourselves through immigration and customs but it was sheer joy to turn the works over to Travis! He and the taxi driver soon has us at our lovely hotel at "The Rocks", the oldest part of Sydney which is now a wonderful area for tourists, as it is right on the harbor and was just a few blocks from the cruise ship terminal.

We spent the next three days in Sydney, which is a beautiful place. The view of the Sydney Harbor Bridge and the Opera House from the zoo is just below---quite spectacular. Travis, Finn, and I enjoyed an early morning stroll from our hotel, which was just across the bay from the Opera House. (I could lay in bed and see the flood-lit Opera House out my hotel window wall---that was something I would never have guessed would ever be in my range of experiences.) When our cruise ship arrived we could see it right off the deck of the hotel.

The Sydney Harbor Bridge is the widest bridge of its type in the world. Travis and I actually climbed it, taking a tour that took us up, down, and around the guts of the bridge and then to the very top of the curved arch. What a view and what a great thing to do with your son.
-Travis and Finn, checking out the bridge before our climb, wearing their

"sunnies"---the Aussie term for sunglasses-

Maggie and Travis are adept at porting Finn in his stroller (asleep) up and down flights of steps---here they were coming off a walk across the bridge.

Finn loved the zoo where we saw kangaroos sleeping in the shade. He is a merry little guy with a big, belly laugh and a cute little giggle. I am certainly enjoying time with him!

Finn, having a bit of a stroll at the Sydney Zoo

(note his Colorado Crocs if you can)

Having time in Sydney together was a wonderful way to start our journey together. Finn and I got acquainted---he looks so much like Travis did and has many of the same traits---sort of like winding the clock back 33 years!

Next posting: pictures from our New Zealand cruise.