Extra photos

Sue, these are extra photos I don't know where you want so am putting them in here and you can put them in where you want them.

 

 

 

relaxing with last beer in Sydney

 

 

2/28: Auckland, Farewell Dinner

 

 

 

We had our Farewell Dinner at the Rydges hotel where we were staying at 5:30 p.m. Saturday night. I got a lot of compliments on Kerry’s sparkling purple top I saved for the last night. Most of the Cape Eight sat at a table together, with Mary Lou and Carolyn Kirk, the attorney/Pilates/Yoga teacher and her mom from California. Peter kept making the rounds of the tables, almost like at a wedding!, collecting first the headphones from our Whisperers, the $150 sets we were given at the start of our trip. Then the speakers themselves, then our papers with credit card payment info on any of the optional trips we had selected. I had a $603 extra bill for mine. Only the last one, for $115 was a waste for me as that was the dinner in Rotorua where I was sick and couldn’t eat a thing and sat outside. But, oh, well!! I did go to the Maori performance and saw the steam vents!






Fourteen of our group were staying and doing the Post trip for 5 days to the Bay of Islands, up in the northern part of New Zealand. The rest of us had to be on the bus at 3 a.m. to get to the airport for the flight to Sydney. I went with them to the airport but my flight was an hour later. After dinner we picked up LARGE bags with our “box” lunch for the morning. It was an enjoyable evening saying good bye to a nice group of people.


Everyone was loaded by 3 a.m. and off we went, after saying good-bye to Peter, who was not accompanying us to the airport. Everything went smoothly and after I checked in, I headed to Gate 15/16 - a LONG walk, to sit with the group until they boarded for their 6:10 a.m. flight. They were having about a 3 hr. layover in Sydney and then the long flight on to LAX. A couple were staying the night at the airport there, but Barbara and others were changing planes and continuing on to JFK or Boston.


I went to my gate and boarded for my 7 a.m. flight to Sydney. I slept most of the way but then had a nice conversation with my seatmmate who was a young man from Chile, living and working for 7 years at a hotel in Auckland. He was on a holiday in Melbourne. He is from Santiago, which is almost straight across the Pacific from NZ.


I had found on the internet that the Sydney airport had a baggage storage facility so opted to pay the $40+ to store my big suitcase until Tuesday when I fly out to Honolulu. Again the long detailed customs process and then found the storage facility and was down to my two backpacks. I got a train ticket to Granville where I had a reservation at an airbnb. I had to train to Central station downtown (near where we stayed) and then change to Yellow Line out to Granville. Met a family with 2 sisters, a brother and a dad who were just off a cruise ship headed home. We had a nice chat and they helped me get off at the right station.


Chris’s directions to his apartment were great, with photos, maps, etc. I passed a Subway shop and stopped for a wonderful familiar lunch as I had had my apple confiscated at the Customs and had only eaten an orange so far. I got as far as a park near Chris’ where I stopped in the shade. There was a couple there who were just taking down a table and stuff where they had been set up to advertise a local Granville Environmental group, and also that day was a “Clean up Australia” day and they were cleaning up in the park. They walked me around the corner to the entrance of the apartment complex. Very friendly and delightful! I have found everyone I’ve run into in these two countries helpful and friendly and very kind!


Chris’ answered the door and said he was getting a bit worried as to where I was. I had said around noon I thought I would be there. My room is upstairs, the whole apartment is very Zen like, all in black and white. He showed me around the living room and kitchen, which I’m free to use. I knew I’d mostly be eating out in the next couple of days with Darren and his family. I called Darren on the house phone and said I’d shower and rest for a couple of hours and then call him back and meet up with him.

I was able to cool down with the lovely fan in my room and finally called Darren about 2:30. He said he’d meet me out front when he arrived. Turns out Elizabeth St. where we were meeting has a green park gap between the two ends and he was on one end looking for me and I was on the other. After a few mixups and coming back to the apartment ( my cell phone doesn’t work here so I had to rely on Chris’ house phone to connect with him), we met up.

Had a nice conversation with Chris (it was Sunday so he was home) and was working on fixing an old computer to connect to his TV set. He looks about 12 but it turns out he is a 31 year old pediatrician (resident, I think) who is finishing up his studies here. He is from Malaysia and his parents live there. So when he finishes, he will try to find a position somewhere in Australia, maybe Perth on the west side which would make his family happy as it’s much closer to Kuala Lumpur where they are! He has been doing airbnb for a couple of years and has had wonderful visitors staying. I will have to register my room over the garage for this, when I’m home long enough, and for the off season when the house isn’t rented out!



More on my evening with Darren and his family in next installment.

2/28 Arrive in Auckland; SkyTower dinner; Sailing

We were back at the Rydges Hotel chain for a 3rd time right in downtown Auckland. After settling in, we did a few blocks stroll down to Queen St., the lowest main street that used to be a riverbed. Saw several homeless people (haven’t seen this anywhere before) and mostly Maori men. Later I saw something on TV about the 150 homeless in Auckland and a program to try to eliminate their situation within 5 months. They didn’t describe WHY these men are homeless but I think it has to do with they don’t want to follow the rules of a shelter or housing the state would provide.






The hill back up was pretty steep but I made it. We met the rest of the group outside the Skytower where you could go up for the view, or JUMP from it on like a zipline. One guy had just landed but we didn’t see him descend!! No one took that option to try!!



We had a lovely dinner in the hotel, until out in the lobby VERY LOUD drums began, for Chinese New Year which seems to be celebrated for 1/2 the month of February!!! Josh and Trish left because it was so noisy and the restaurant manager couldn’t do anything about it. as we were leaving, other Chinese acrobats were performing so it probably went on all evening, with crowds gather. I think the drumming had been the Lion Dance earlier but I didn’t see it.


The next day we were bused to the harbor for our sailing experience in the harbor. Auckland is the sailing capital of the world. And you would agree when you saw the number of harbors filled with all sizes of sailboats, as well as the temporary buildings that were set up around the harbor for the weekend as the Volvo Round the World Race was stopping here!!! Concert stages were set up, and on Saturday people were everywhere. This is a 9 month race with, I’m assuming, required stops and they were in town. It was very festive!




We went out in two 33 foot sailing boats - ours was the Courageous, the other the Defiance. Unfortunately, there was not much wind so we only had a few moments when they put the sails up and actually shut off the motor. We had a 45 minute swing around the harbor, each of us getting a turn at the wheel. I had just turned to Bob and Mary, when I saw the big steering wheel, and relayed the story of when Bud and I took a Coast Guard course on the Chesapeake Bay - planning in the distant future to own a boat and sail around the world in it in retirement! We chose this beautiful 36 foot sloop to go out on for the day with the owners. When it was my turn at the helm, the boat kind of caught the wind and keeled to the side a bit (don’t know if that’s the right term but it leaned quite a bit to one side!) As it got straightened out, Bud came up from down below. He looked at me at the helm and said, “I should have known!” apparently he was in the head, it keeled, and he came crashing out with his shorts around his ankles!! A couple of women were sitting at the table down below as he crashed out!!! :)


So when they said who wants the helm, they all yelled for me!! Anyhow, no wind, no incident!! All was smooth sailing, or rather motoring! It was lovely; would have been nice to have the real sense of sailing but nice to be out on the gorgeous harbor!



We had a free afternoon so our Cape 8, as well as a few others from the group, hopped the ferry for the 10 minute ride across the harbor to Devenport, a little suburb with great views looking back to the city. By this time tons of sailing boats were rigged and headed out for a day sail. We walked around, it was hot. Got a few pictures of some picturesque Victorian style houses, bought a used book for the trip home (Judy, Shannon, Michelle - you could bring one or two to trade me! I’ve passed on a couple that I finished to others. Still can’t make that transition to ebooks!! like the feel of it in my hand!!). I got separated from my friends but wandered down to the pier, bought a gelato and headed back on the ferry. They came about an hour later. I rested in the room until our Farewell Dinner that night.

 

2/27: On the road to Auckland - Rotorua school

 

 
Today was our school visit. This was an amazing intermediate (7 and 8) school for mostly low income students run by Rory O’Rouke, who I believe is from Ireland. 73% of students are Maori, % are pukeha (meaning white or European) and the other % are Pacific Islanders.


We were told to wait outside until these two girls sang a song inviting us in to the big meeting hall. Men were supposed to go first and sit in front, then the ladies!!! Bob had been elected our “Chief” and spokesperson so he went first, and when inside. He was invited up to speak for us. We then had to sing a song (Take me out to the Ball Game - I almost broke out in my tap dance routine that we used to do a couple of years ago to that song! - NOT!!! :) There was a lot of Maori language spoke by another guy who later played the guitar while the students sang in Maori. Rory said later few of the students speak it at home but can choose to have some of their classes in the language and all are required to take the language course.

 

I’m in Sydney now, staying at an airbnb for two nights while I visit with Darren and his wife (met him last year at the retreat at Blue Cliff, he was one of the Sandy Hook support group, and the photographer who took that great photo of Doug and I that he put up on Facebook last fall. Anyway his wife is from Sydney and they have moved back here; he’s in school now to become a counselor.


So I left my large bag, with the info on the school, in the airport until my flight to Hawaii on Tuesday, so I’ll have to give you more details on the school probably when I’m on the plane.


But we later had a guide, West, one of the chosen student leaders from the 8 year, this school is 7 and 8. West told us soon the group of leaders will go to camp and then Rory will choose one girl and one boy leader for the rest of the year. Their school year began 4 weeks ago and goes until just before Christmas next year. They have 10 weeks on, 2 weeks holiday, 10 weeks on, 2 weeks and continue until December when they have 6 weeks, like our summer vacation, especially as it’s summer here at that time!


West took us around to various parts of the school. His favorite was like Industrial Arts where they were working on a drone, robots, had a 3-d printer (see picture) which I’d never seen before - it was spitting out some plastic lego type pieces. Jackson would LOVE a classroom like this!!!



We visited a music class where two guitar students and 3 marimba students demonstrated for us. 1/2 the school was away at a camp of some sort. The students got to choose which “academy” they fit best in, which I’ll explain better when I have the booklet he gave us.


A main focus of the school was their anti-bullying program, their rewards for positive behavior. No student is ever expelled. They had just had a resolution with two students and their parents in a long meeting. Very impressive program. Our guide Peter said Rory had to follow a country-wide curriculum but how he does that is up to him.


Grand Circle Foundation supports this school and Rory said they were currently trying to see that ALL students had an Ipad available to them for home use and a few students couldn’t afford it. This is one of the reasons I really like this company as they support a school in each country they visit, bring travelers to the school and part of the money you spend for the trip goes to support it. We visit a much poorer school in Zimbabwe and part of Peter’s job is to visit the school and see what’s been done. Cool!




More on the school later!