2/26: Rotorua- Te Puia performance and dinner

I stayed in my room all day, missing the museum program in the a.m. I was able to Facetime with Kerry, as she was working from home, for the first time on the trip. It was good to see her face (and Jason at the end!).


I still was coughing, and my ribs hurt like crazy, I assume from throwing up the day before, but wanted to see the Maori crafts (weaving and woodcarving) and performance. We went to Te Puia, a hot springs area with models of buildings in the Maori style. There were mud pools like at Yellowstone and steaming vents. We weren’t there for an actual eruption that happens every 20 minutes.

 

 

We went to the weaving area where we saw how they used the flax leaf to strip the green to make threads, roll them to make rope and cut them with a shell to make the “skirts” that they were. They leave part of the green on that eventually turns black to make the squares.
There was a wood carving area for their large totems. All this is very reminiscent of Hawaiian, Alaskan and other Pacific peoples. They were cooking the dinner of roast chicken, I think, and potatoes and squash and we saw them remove the big trays from over the steam vents where they had a natural source of heat. First we were going to attend the dancing.


The Maori were very strong warriors and their dances showed it, with lots of yelling, stamping, and the wide eyes and tongue out. This is the reason they didn’t get overrun like the Aborigines in Australia.


We headed in to dinner and I knew this wasn’t going to work for me. Peter got me a bottle of seltzer to settle my stomach. But when they started bringing food to the table, I moved outside for fresh air. A sweet waitress from Sri Lanka named Dew (she’s 23) brought me some mint tea which really helped settle things. At least, until I got back to the hotel!!



Eventually I got back to my lovely suite and got all packed up for our departure in the a.m.

2/25; Travel day to Rotorua

I stayed in my room all day, missing the museum program in the a.m. I was able to Facetime with Kerry, as she was working from home, for the first time on the trip. It was good to see her face (and Jason at the end!).


I still was coughing, and my ribs hurt like crazy, I assume from throwing up the day before, but wanted to see the Maori crafts (weaving and woodcarving) and performance. We went to Te Puia, a hot springs area with models of buildings in the Maori style. There were mud pools like at Yellowstone and steaming vents. We weren’t there for an actual eruption that happens every 20 minutes.

 

 

We went to the weaving area where we saw how they used the flax leaf to strip the green to make threads, roll them to make rope and cut them with a shell to make the “skirts” that they were. They leave part of the green on that eventually turns black to make the squares.
There was a wood carving area for their large totems. All this is very reminiscent of Hawaiian, Alaskan and other Pacific peoples. They were cooking the dinner of roast chicken, I think, and potatoes and squash and we saw them remove the big trays from over the steam vents where they had a natural source of heat. First we were going to attend the dancing.


The Maori were very strong warriors and their dances showed it, with lots of yelling, stamping, and the wide eyes and tongue out. This is the reason they didn’t get overrun like the Aborigines in Australia.


We headed in to dinner and I knew this wasn’t going to work for me. Peter got me a bottle of seltzer to settle my stomach. But when they started bringing food to the table, I moved outside for fresh air. A sweet waitress from Sri Lanka named Dew (she’s 23) brought me some mint tea which really helped settle things. At least, until I got back to the hotel!!



Eventually I got back to my lovely suite and got all packed up for our departure in the a.m.

2/24, Arrowtown, Winery

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Betty headed out at 7 to catch the bus back to Christchurch and Stella. I’ll see her again in October at our 50th Clarke Reunion, hopefully with Nancy and Mary Lou!! What a hoot that will be!

Our bus left at 9 for the 30 minute ride to Arrowtown. This was a gold mining town when gold was discovered in 1862, as the third largest after California and Australia (not sure where Alaska fits in). It was “Maori Jack” Tewa, a shearer, who found gold in the Arrow River in 1862. But - as is the way- a pushier European, William Fox, made bigger waves, and the town started life called “Fox’s”. 1500 miners worked the river.

In the 1860s the Cantonese were actively recruited to come here for the cheap labor. However, they were “invited” to live separately in their Chinese village, down on the flood plain near the river where in 1863 a big flood had wiped out some miners. One particular Chinese, very tall Ah Lum, built his home that we visited and ran a bank for the Chinese who didn’t trust European banks with their gold, and sold supplies. Out front was a “gunny” or toilet/outhouse that became the first public toilet. The European ladies would shop at Ah Lum’s when they realized they could buy Chinese tea that hadn’t been from China, through London, and back, much cheaper. They made the gunny big enough for the ladies’ crinolines under their dresses!!

When the 1880s Recession hit world wide, everyone looked for someone to blame. The Chinese were making their money and sending it home to families back in China. This is EXACTLY what the Brits and other Europeans were doing, but they ignored that. NZ instituted a Poll Tax of L100, when the average earnings were L3/yr!! Many Chinese left.

They had no main roads or power here until the 1950s. Now it’s a ski resort and peaceful summer, historic and vacation site. We visited the goldfield jail where minor disputes and drunks were housed. I walked around and visited the Catholic church. It is famous for Sr/St. Mary McKillop, an Irish nun, who started the St. Joseph order to set up and service schools in the outback/remote areas. Her little cottage was next door. She was a “feminist” who stood up to the bishops of the time and was excommunicated for her trouble. Later she was beatified so because Australia/New Zealand’s first saint.

After a lovely lunch of fish chowder and a visit to the historical museum, we headed off to the Gibbotson Winery a bit out of town, past a bridge where people were bungee jumping (a sport invented here in NZ). Alan Brady came to this area, that was only used for sheep, and against all odds planted his vines. Pinot Noir needs hot sun and cool nights, small grapes and this is the most southern wine-growing region, she thought, in the world. And he made a success, keeping production very small and highest quality. We went into the wine cave and tasted 3 different kinds, along with 3 different kinds of chocolate to enhance and balance the flavors. Very nice!

Back at our hotel, we were all settled in for a rest when there was a fire alarm. I heard nothing because the alarm in my room didn’t go off. I was reading in bed when an employee knocked on my door and told me I had to evacuate (we are on the 10th floor!). I threw on some pants, grabbed my laptop and bag and headed out to the landing. We only had to go down 5 flights to the parking lot and we could see the others 5 floors below us out front. Portia was behind me and was having difficulty because you could see through the wrought iron of the stairs. But one of the guy employees helped her down and we all waited while the fire department checked everything out. We think it was some construction going on on our floor. I couldn’t get back in my room with my room card so had to wait until someone came up to let me in. Then after I got back in bed, MY fire alarm in the room buzzed loudly 4 times. I called the desk and they sent someone to check but said ignore it!!! Grrrrr! No rest today!

We walked downtown to meet the group at 6 for dinner. Barbara, Leona, Portia and I had dinner with Peter our guide and had a nice conversation. He’s going to be a first time grandfather in a couple of months from his 20 year old daughter who’s in school! Both daughters live in Sydney. Interesting!

Off to Rotorua and a home visit with a Maori family tomorrow night!

2/23 Monday, Milford Sound cruise

We left at 7 a.m. for the 4.5 hr bus ride to Milford Sound, driving through the gorgeous Southern Alps. Betty chose to ride with us over there, even though Peter told her the boat tickets were completely sold out. We were going to be 2 hrs on the boat but I thought it might be worth the drive to see the scenery, which it definitely was! Then she could read a book if she couldn’t get on the boat. But I thought with one person there was a chance someone in ours or one of the other tours would cancel and she could get a ticket. It turned out Josh (and Trish stayed home with him) as well as Pat, who’d had two shoulders replaced before this trip and was hurting, decided to stay back and chill out at the hotel. Josh had ended up in the hospital the day before with chills, fever, shakes - thinking maybe he had picked up malaria in a Fiji stop on their way to Australia. It wasn’t that, they don’t know what, but he wasn’t feeling up to going.



Many of the mountains had snow tops or glaciers on top and were rugged and spectacular. Most of the countryside was just sheep grazing, some reindeer (they raise them for meat and antlers), and cows/cattle. The road was windy and lots of switchbacks. Barbara and Judy sat in the front seats and took medicine for the motion sickness. We saw some interesting movies on the video screens going over and coming back to pass the time. We saw a great movie with Anthony Hopkins about a motor cycle racer from New Zealand who in his 80s took his “Indian” to Bonneville Salt Flats and set a world land speed record of over 200+ MPH. He’s always great in whatever he’s in! We saw a documentary on the ANZAC contributions in WWI.



I chatted with Joanna who had taught for a year in both Germany and Mexico in the 80s, when she lost her teaching job in California when there were cutbacks. She was, and still is, pretty adventurous!!



The road we drove on was built during the 1930s as a Depression era work project. This was the same as that Great Ocean Road in Melbourne Anna and I took the bus trip down. When we arrived in Milford Sound, we were only about 40 KM from Queenstown but we had to take a LOOONG u-shaped drive around mountains to get there. They finally had to blast/dig a tunnel through one mountain - about 3/4 mile long, one way only for buses - to get there. The Homer Tunnel was started in 1939 and not completed until 1954. They still frequently have avalanches that can completely cover the tunnel openings and it takes sometimes weeks to clear them. There is no town, only the ferry stop for several boats.



Peter had reserved tables so it was much more comfortable, compared to the crowded ferry trip the day before to the farm across Lake Wakatipu. Since three of our group had not gone, there was even a box lunch for Betty! She went with Peter to the ticket counter and purchased her ticket ($95) but she thought it was well worth it! There were plenty of extra seats on the bus so that wasn’t an issue.



Some facts: Queenstown has about 1 meter of rain/hear; The Divide that we crossed has about 20 ‘/year and Milford Sounds has 30 feet/year!!



A book I’d be interested in reading that Peter passed around is Penguin Press’ History of New Zealand by M. King. New Zealand was the last country to be settled and civilized.



Lake Wakatipu is the longest lake in NZ - 80 miles from Glenorchy to Kingston. People fish for brown trout, rainbow trout and salmon. I had a salmon dinner the other night that was the best salmon I’ve tasted!



Maori - this native people mostly lived in the North Island and only came here for hunting and to find the greenstone (I think that’s jade). They came here 700-900 years ago probably from Polynesia, when food got scarce.



Famous ALL BLACK rugby team is formidable!



They were much more aggressive and assertive than the Aborigines in Australia. They would trade the British for muskets. Then used them for the Musket Wars amongst themselves.



New Zealand has no snakes, scorpions, squirrels, bears, or other predators.



Kea is a native, cheeky Alpine parrot very curious, supposedly has the intelligence of a 2 year old. Will eat the rubber wipers and other parts off your car. Great problem-solvers to open things to get food.



NZ is the size of the state of Colorado with 4 million population. VERY protective of their water and environment. Very strict customs rules! $400 fine if you mark NO on the form and they find something. Long list of things you can’t bring in.



Exports: dairy products, lamb, timber



Mt. Cook the highest peak - 13,000 Ft.



A Sound is carved by erosion and then the river valley is drowned. V-shaped and not very deep (Milford is 110 ft). Milford is brownish color from the erosion and has a layer on top of fresh water.



A fjord is u-shaped, very deep, carved by glaciers.



We ended our day by having pub grub and beer and wine off the bar on a patio, with Richard and his son Dean, Barbara, Betty and I. It was lovely as the sun set!! Later Cindy brought her dinner over. The rest of the group got off the bus downtown and ate there at various places.



One more day here in this paradise!!



The cruise ship went out about 45 minutes to the Tasman Sea entrance to the sound

2/22 Sunday, Cruise in Queenstown, Jet Boat

 

Betty took a bus today to Arrowtown as she will be headed back to Christchurch on Tuesday when we do this. I enjoyed my balcony with an amazing view of Lake Wakatipu and the Remarkable Mountains. At 11:30 I joined the rest of the group to board the 102 year old steam ferry (we watched the coal be dumped on board for the steam engine) the TSS Earnslaw. We slowly steamed across the Lake to the Walter Peak Sheep Station. Jack, who’s lived here for 20 years gave the tour and demonstrated shearing sheep.

 

 

The original settler came here in 1862 and brought 700 sheep, taking 2-3 months to drive them here. 1/2 of them died and they thought it was the grass. Eventually all of them died from Scrappy so they immigrated to Queensland and grew bananas.

Next Gold was discovered near queenstown and James McClain settled and built a stone cottage. He tried supplying the miners and transporting the gold. when the gold rush peaked in 1882, he disappeared.

Hugh McKenzie and his 8 kids then took over 400 acres and grew potatoes. Over 20 years their spread grew to 180,000 acres, over 3 generations. They added sheep. But by the 3rd generation they went broke and left.

Merino wool, the non-itching soft kind, was grown and during the Korean war reached it’s highes price, $l pound for l #. New Zealand introduced sheep to the Chinese and they now have 170 million sheep.

 

 

 

Jack sheared 8 sheep yesterday from 11 a.m. - 11pm. He showed us how he quickly sheared the sheep, holding her between his legs, on her rump so she was relaxed. Until she got back on her feet, she was easy to manage.



We then saw a demonstration of King, his herding dog and how he herded 6 sheep down from the pasture, with just whistle calls and words. It was pretty amazing! No barking!


We then saw some red deer that they raise, for the venison and for the antlers that fall off every year. They are sold to Asia for an aphrodisiac . Now they are more valuable for medicines to treat joint injuries. It’s called velvet antler.


He also has alpaca to defend the sheep against dogs. The family is, from largest to smallest, camel, alpaca, llama and pashmina.

We then walked through the gorgeous flower gardens for afternoon tea on the veranda, while we waited for the ferry to return.

After the ferry, people split up, some to go to the bird sanctuary to see the kiwi (only 300 left) and I went with a group and Betty on a one hour jet boat ride. It was fast, he did many 360 turns where we got sprayed, up two very shallow rivers. It was exciting, cost $86.




Betty was able to pay to come to our dinner at the hotel. We had such a fun table, with Bob and Mary. She says she’s an introvert and doesn’t like to travel, but she’s a hoot!! We kept toasting ridiculous things!! I had a delicious salmon dinner and Betty had lamb shank. Early day tomorrow!

2/20, Rocks Museum, Market, Kings vs United

 

After the Opera, we walked down Circular Quay past the Writers’ Walk, where plaques were in the sidewalk honoring such writers as Mark Twain, James Michener, Rudyard Kipling - names, I recognized and many I didn’t. Barbara noted one Robert Hughes, who wrote The Fatal Shore, I think about the first settlement here. So I will try to read that when I get home.

Leona, Barbara and I headed to the Rocks Museum as we’d missed it the day before when we went out on the ferry to visit Watson’s Bay. We stopped to have lunch at the Museum of Contemporary Art but the line was very long so we left, did the museum and came back later for a lovely lunch of Reuben sandwich and fries with a great harbor view, .

The Museum is in one of the old buildings from the settlements here in the 1840s. It basically was a harbor slum and later they cleaned it out when the Bubonic plague hit in the early 1900s from all the rats coming off the ships. There were artifacts on display showing pieces of Wedgewood and Willowware china. There was a series of short films showing movies from the 1930s as the Harbor Bridge was being constructed. It was called the Iron Lung because it gave so many Depression era workers jobs to keep their families from starving.

 

 

They showed pictures of the Cadigal aboriginal tribe who were living here when the first European settlers arrived. Very briefly they got along but soon fences were put up and they were pretty nearly wiped out by smallpox or escaped out of the area. It was reported that “no civilization was living here.” They pretty much discounted these people all over Australia until the 1990s when they began to claim some rights and land.

We headed back on the 555 bus to Paddy’s Market - like a Chinese market where I found the Australian lanyard to hold water bottles I’d been looking for, bought a pony tail hairpiece like Marilyn had gotten the day before and headed back to the hotel nearby to rest up for the basketball game that night.

Barbara talked to Bob and Mary who were going across the street to the Sydney Kings vs. Melbourne United basketball game at the Qantas Area. So we got tickets for $55 each and went. Barbara is a huge UCONN men’s and women’s team fan as well as other pro teams. I thought it would be fun so I went along. We saw some other team before playing a game but not many people were there watching. Two young teenage boys sat next to Barbara and they discussed more about the team. At one point during the game, on the big TV screens hanging from the center, they scan the audience and put up some pictures. They had a drum picture and audience members would pretend they were playing the drums. These guys got picked up and there was Barbara for a few seconds up on the big TV screen! They also had a kissing monitor and if your picture showed up there, you had to kiss your partner.

The teams (Kings) colors are purple and gold (like Gail’s Vikings!) and Barb had wanted to get a t-shirt but we didn’t find any. Mary and Bob got hot dogs for dinner and said they were pretty gross! The game was very exciting, with the Kings being ahead through the whole 4 quarters until the last 10 minutes. At 1/2 time they were 10 points ahead. Then at the end the Melbourne United pulled ahead and ended up winning by two points!! A nail-biter!

The 1/2 time show was some new local singers in a tight flowered outfit with about 10 black-clothed men and women dancers doing cartwheels, dancing all around her. They also had the lion mascot at one point shooting what I guess were t-shirts out of a pretty powerful gun out into the audience. Cheerleaders were doing cheer and acrobatics across the arena at various breaks. Very good game and fun stuff to watch! I thoroughly enjoyed it!

Because of some noisy construction in our hotel, we had received a card for a complimentary drink. So we sat in the bar with Bob and Mary with our VB (Victoria Bitters) beer chatting about kids! Their daughter had gone to St. Mary’s at Notre Dame in South Bend, IN. I think she now lives in Florida.  Bob and Mary are from Cleveland area. She worked for Cleveland Clinic in the financial department

2/20 OPERA HOUSE, SYDNEY

We loaded up at 8:15 for our tour to the Sydney Opera House. Alex, our guide, was SOOOO dramatic and wonderful! He obviously loves his job. In the 60s someone had the idea to build a world class opera house and the competition began. Finally this warehouse site at the harbor was chosen. A Danish architect named Utsen won the competition with his revolutionary design, inspired by orange slices, put back to back. When he won, over 233 entries, however, he had no idea how to construct it. He was here for the foundation part but then went back to Denmark. The Finnish architect Saarenin, was one of the judges. It was to cost $7 million and take 3 years. It ended up costing $102 million and was finished in 1973!!! New South Wales started a lottery, as tax payers didn’t want to pay for this, and it paid for the whole thing.

All the foyers face north, because we’re below the equator so that would give the most light. All the plate glass (LOTS of it) came from France, triple paned, and the tiles are Swedish. He had us guess how many tiles - only 1,056,006!! The panels are in a chevron pattern, after somebody’s wife’s dress, I think. They were assembled on the ground and then lifted by cranes in place. The tiles clean themselves when it rains.

 

 

 

Utsen never returned to see the finished product. However, his son is now here supervising an expansion. To begin with there were 3 levels underground. They are renovating down to 10 levels!!! There is now a tunnel so the trucks for the operas, etc., can drive straight in to unload the sets. The opera house does a rotating schedule of 5 operas in one week, with the crew changing the sets each day for performances, 8/week. There are 2000+ performances of some kind every year. Oprah did a spectacular show here that they built an outside stage for in her final season. Hugh Jackman did a zip line entrance from the top of the opera house to her stage, and ended up crashing headfirst into her set! The show went on!

He took us into first the big concert hall where I will view the symphony on Friday. We weren’t allowed to take any pictures or videos. It is a spectacular hall! Three species of wood make up the whole thing. No microphones are used - the is an array of rings above the orchestra that reflects the sound so they can hear each other. A huge organ is mounted on the wall with over 10,000 pipes. Next we visited the theatre where the operas are performed (and other performances). There was a net over the orchestra pit. Alex told a funny story about an opera being performed where there were about a dozen live chickens (I think it was a very serious Russian one like Boris Gudenov). During this dark, tragic story, the chickens got loose and ended up falling into the orchestra pit! Laughter erupted as the audience thought it was part of the story! The opera was stopped, the orchestra stopped playing and the musicians all threw the chickens back onstage! Ever since, there has been a net across the pit to protect the musicians and their instruments.

When we were out in the foyer, standing on the bright purple carpet, Alex told a story about when Luciano Pavarotti was performing. They planned a reception out in the foyer but when Luciano saw the purple, this was a very bad luck color for him. He refused to put a step on it! He was sure it would taint his performance. The staff carried him across and to the other side where the foyer carpet was red. Everything was fine for his performance. I guess that’s what being a diva means! I remember hearing a story about an opera diva at the Metropolitan Opera in New York when I did the backstage tour there. She didn’t like the carpet in her dressing room, thought it would hurt her throat. So they ripped it out and put in new!!!

We saw close-up details of the tiles covering the roof of the house - tan rectangles and white glossy squares. Lots of concrete! My architect friend Larry really needs to see this! He’d find it so interesting!! The windows have to be cleaned every month, inside and out and it takes 2 weeks to do it.



Later we did a night harbor tour and saw the opera house beautifully lit up in red for Chinese New Year, the year of the sheep/ram. Thousands of vacationing Chinese were all over the place. In the market near the hotel I saw a band led by Lion Dancers parading through.

The symphony performance at the opera house was Schuman’s 3rd and 4th symphonies. It lasted about 1.5 hours and tickets were $50. Maybe 15 of the group went. We took the 555 free bus up George St. to the house. We went early as there was to be a tea ahead of time. One of the guards told me there was a 45 minute talk before about the pieces to be played so I headed up but it was not until Saturday. I asked an usher where my entrance gates was. I sat down with a cup of water and cookies and couldn’t remember what I’d done with my ticket! I went back to that usher and she said, “are you Susan?” she had found my ticket on the floor and given it to the usher at my Door. It even had the receipt attached so I’d been out of luck! All was good and the performance and acoustics were wonderful. I met Josh on the trip who plays oboe and French horn with the Radio City Music Hall orchestra (for 40 years!) so I especially paid attention to that section - there were 4 of them, it looked like.