New Zealand flag - stars represent the Southern Cross
Maori Flag
Kia Ora to you all. It is a Maori greeting that means hello, goodbye, welcome. We arrived in New Zealand yesterday, but again, here's what we've been doing:
You remember back on Monday 9/18 we had a great day at the Great Barrier Reef. The next day we took a ride up into the Daintree Rainforest. Interesting to learn that the GBR and the rainforest meet here. We drove through miles of sugar cane, which they were cutting and processing. When I asked Udo if they didn't burn the fields first, he said 'No, they only do that in 3rd world countries'. What do Ron and Sue say about that? I laughed and told him they burn them in Texas. Australia is contrary about their environment. They want to do all the right things, they don't allow fresh fruit and vegetables to pass between states, they don't burn their sugar cane -- but the country is all up in arms about the future closing of a coal-fired power plant. They don't want the power company to close it even though it's old and nasty. Definitely don't want nuclear power. And electricity is expensive here. Back to Daintree. It's the oldest Rainforest in the world, estimated to be 150 million years old. In this forest there's a cassowary bird. Mom lays the eggs, dad does all the rest. They are endangered and real important to the continuation of plant life in the forest. We walked for about 2 hours among huge tree roots and some mud; of course, it was raining in the Rainforest, taking the red dirt of Uluru off our shoes. They do get many cyclones (hurricanes) here. We next took a boat ride from the mouth of the Tasmanian Sea inside some little rivers. Udo told us to never swim in a river here. We later saw one of the crocodiles laying on a bit of beach with his eyes open. We took the ferry back across the Tribulation River (named back in the time of Captain Cook) back to our hotel.
On Wed 9/20 we flew to lovely Sydney, returning with our group. We needed to do laundry and take a little break, so we just hung out the next day. On Thurs we took a driving tour with Udo. A couple of us bought Opal earrings. Anne and I decided to join them for the harbor cruise; it was much nicer than our first one. There are many little harbor beaches here, around 100 I believe. The weather has been lovely the last 10 days. After the cruise, we took a tour of the bowels of the Sydney Opera House. We all enjoyed that view. Afterwards Anne and I stuck around to see the tribute to Leonard Cohen which we had bought weeks ago when we were here. We had about an hour before the show. A couple women approached Anne, asking if we could use the 'tasting' tickets they weren't going to use. So we were very surprised when the 'tasting' showed up at our table. It was 3 tiers of a big variety of things, meant for 4 or more. On top, 2 hamburger sliders, 2 chicken sliders, French fries. Middle layer had 3 little bowls of 3 different salads (all excellent), 2 hunks of dark bread, a bit of smoked salmon. Bottom layer had about 6 Chinese dumplings, some sushi, Wasabi and a soy sauce. Can you believe our good fortune? Then we waddled to a little theater in the Opera House and really enjoyed the musical review. We laughed, we cried, we sang along. We had a really great day.
Australians are very friendly, they all like to chat you up. You meet such interesting people with amazing lives and circumstances that brought them here. If I was 40 years younger, I might just move here. I meant to tell you that Udo's most often repeated phrase is 'Be sure to take all your things because you will never,,, ever,,, see this bus again'.
On Fri we took a walk, and it was very warm. That night was our farewell dinner with our favorite German-Australian accented tour guide, the handsome Udo Jungmann. We appreciate all the effort he made to show and share with us his Australia. If you get a chance, come see all it has to offer. We had a very early flight Sat morning from Sydney to Auckland, New Zealand. Farewell, mates! We turned our watches 2 hours forward.
We met our tour guide, Catherine, at the airport in Aotearoa, 'The Land of the Long White Cloud'. They also drive on the left here; still not used to it. Sometimes there is a painted notice on the ground at crosswalks, reminding you to look right for the traffic before crossing. Catherine has a different accent, 'kiwi'. You kinda think it's Australian, but it's really different. 'E's are pronounced like a small i . You can hear a roll of the tongue. Her European family ancestor arrived around 1837 from Ireland. She also has Maori tribal blood which you don't really notice. So the Maori descend from Polynesian people, and they have been on this land for about 1300 years. There are 3 official languages here: English, Maori and sign. The only original mammal here was the bat. There were birds, but they didn't fly because there were no predators. Catherine reminds us to set out watches one hour ahead tonight because they are going into daylight savings time.
Today it's in the high 60s while Michigan is having much warmer weather. We took a city bus to a museum for lunch, then we met a member of the Maori tribe, Prince Davis (not a real prince, just a name). He gave a welcome blessing in Maori and sang a beautiful song for us. In return we sang a hokey version of 'You are my sunshine'. We met his European wife (Irish, Scottish, Polish) whose family has been here since mid 1900s. When he met her, Prince said with that mix, half of her liked to drink, the other half didn't want to pay for it. It was funnier when he said it. They served us tea, and we tasted delicious golden kiwis, which we haven't seen back home. We talked about many topics and enjoyed the visit. The 'chief' of our group did a greeting with Prince when we arrived, just like another tribal chief would. They clasped hands and shoulders together and put their faces together at the nose and forehead, keeping their eyes open, breathing in the other's breath. I believe that ritual is called hangi. When we were leaving, I shook his wife's hand, and she asked that we do hongi. So we did. Anne is fighting off the cold I've had for a couple weeks, so we go home for a rest. Early bus ride in the morning.
Kia Ora,
A & M
