Taupo

We are now at Taupo, a resort lake town in the middle of the north island of NZ. It is raining and warm and we have checked into our Caravan Park for the night. Now we are off to the store to gather food for dinner. We had a nice travel day today and yesterday driving from north of Christchurch to Picton and then the ferry to Wellington and then a difficult drive to find our lodging last night. Finding lodging is the most difficult part of the journey as they are not always on the main road and are often far off in nowhere. We are here now and will depart early for our trip north to auckland and the airport. We have booked lodging there as well. Hope all is well, we have lots of video a d pictures to bore all with. Love to all, ron and carol

Katkoura

this is where we are at and we are about to drive to the ferry tomorrow morning and then move up to Auckland for our trip back to Australia. There is a plane due out of Richmond, Au on Wed and we hope to catch a ride but we have no idea what our chances are since that would be a week before we planned. We have had a great visit and the weather has been wonderful until today where it clouded over and became cool. It is due to rain this evening and then for the next few days. We will be driving up the north island and that should not be too bad for all the outside walking and sightseeing has almost been accomplished. We are still in good health and we have a local fish, called pearl, to eat in our cozy little cottage that we have rented for the evening. the big downer has been that the windshield on our rental car has cracked without any obvious reason and that could cost us big bucks for our deductible is $1000. We hope you are all well and enjoying some gorgeous weather and company, can't wait to get back and get back in the grouve. Spelling is New Zealand. love to all, ron and carol

Blue Mountains

We are now just west of the Blue Mountains in a town called Lithgow. It is a rather large but old town with ties to the USA. Back in WWII it was a major producer of small arms used in the Allied Armies and as such it was important that a survivable link to the coast and the sea travel. The USA was instrumental in building a roadway to the coast through the Blu Mountains. Today we spent some time in Katoomba where we spent the night in a Motel, oa all things. It even had a spa and a full hot breakfast that we took advantage of. We had omelets with cheese and mushrooms and were they good. We also used the jacuzzi spa and it was wonderful after a long walk through town to Echo Point where the three sisters rock formation can be seen. We took some short hikes to wear off some of the calories that we have been ingesting. We escaped the showers and had a fine day. Today we drove from there to Mt Victoria and observed some more lookouts to the valleys of the Blue Mountains. The highest peak is around 3100 meters, not very high by our standards. We also took in Australia's Grand Canyon and although a beautiful sight it is far from the Grand Canyon in Arizona and the other in Wyoming. We ended up in this former industrial town and have rented another unit in a caravan park. We have done laundry and also had a nice talk with the proprieters. They are very wonderful folks. Speaking of people, we also met a neat couple from England this morning at breakfast. He was the CEO of a major power company in England. Well, tomorrow we head to Windsor and Richmond in preparation for our departure to New Zealand. We will update this as we get some access to the internet. It may be a few days. We will need to take a 2 hour train ride to the Sidney airport and then find the terminal. All is an adventure for us for we never know what looms ahead. There are no guides or services, just Carol asking questions of whomever we see. Some good and some not so good. We have met lots of great folks and this is the way to travel. Love ya all, ron and carol

Moving On

We left the coast of New South Whales as the villages were becoming more resorts than Australian villages. We went inland and have spent the last few days driving though mountains and large spans of paddocks. Lots of sheep and cattle all around without any sight of homes. They are all tucked away behind knolls. We met a woman at the information center that told us that 2500 acres is an normal size for a cattle or sheep ranch. Now I am writing as we have only 1/2 hour & speed is of the essence.....We have been staying the "Ensuite" cabins at caravan parks as they seem to be the cheapest....We get 2 bedrooms & full kitchen w/bath for around 70-80. All B&B & motel prices seem to be upwards of 100.....We did some checking & last night we checked & the cheapest was $140 w/brkfast.....One place we stopped was $250......We buy our groceries at the Woolworth & have a great supper & breakfast....Last night we even had some T-bone steaks (good old auusie beef). We had a grill & they were good. Of course I had to buy some garlic to go on them..... Have also gotten some of their sweet corn & it was also tasty. Eggs are very expensive like $350 a dozen!.......I think the weather is changing & getting colder so we will pack one suitcase to go to NZ....We can only have 40#.....Can't believe it....I will be pushing it to get that little so I am going to put as much as I can into my backpack & so is Ron. Unfortunately, his computer died...Don't know why. The scenery is lovely....Going on to the Blue Mountains & it is suppose to be cooler there & then we'll go back to our B&B that we started out in & do some laundry hopefully & be on our way as of Fri to fly to NZ. We'll try & write before we leave....best to all Love Ron & Carol

This is our second try at posting our blog. We are in Sale, Au and have spent one night in Toora and the other in Melbourne. The friends in Geelong gave us a royal sendoff and did a wonderful job of showing off their section of the coast. Our stay in Melbourne was great, a bus ride around town, a old Victorian hotel, and a meal in China town. We are now touring the eastern southern shore and have visited some ports and some national parks. Stayed in a caravan park last night and visited Port Albert today, home of oldest hotel on shoreling. We are now in Sale, first city on this shoreline. It is very nice and we are about to eat lunch here. It is cloudy, warm, and raining at the moment with just little spurts of sun coming unexpectably. Hope all is well with all, regards, ron and carol

Sale AU

This is a quick note from me (carol). It is pooring down rain & we can't even walk this lovely town that has a swing bridge (only one of its kind here) & a lovely boardwalk. Guess we shall just leave here & find a Bakery for lunch which is very popular in this area. We just signed on to pay a toll fee that we encountered in Melbourne & it cost us $11.45 for about 10min ride. They have no toll booths so you just have to e-mail them your credit card # & info within 48 hours or you are charged big fines for not doing so. You can't avoid them either. This is our second one. Each road has its on toll policy & they seem to go up. The other bad thing that happened was my curling iron blew up this AM. Guess it just got tooooo hot & hissed so we threw it away so now I am looking for a target which is very common here to purchase another one. Can't believe no Wallmarts here. They do have Aldi's & of course Target. Their prices aren't cheap & the dollar keeps losing ground. Well, that is all for now...Pray for our safe return...it has been stressful at times... I loved it best when we were visiting our friends & they drove. As an example, we stopped to have lunch & all meals were $20! Oh well, bon voyage for now...Love to all Ron & Carol

Arrived

Finally got to AU. We actually were the first ones on the list. Only took 5 passengers. Very cramped but did have regular seats. We left on Mon AM & arrived in Sydney on Tues at 6PM. What a difference...Fooled them tho we didn't have to pay lodging for Mon night!!! It is bloody hot here like 80+ & our room was not AC so we ran a fan all night. We stayed there 3 nights & took the train into Sydney which was just across the street. Very convenient. Saw just about all we needed to see & learned many things in the interim. Food has not been steeler but we hope it will get better. Maybe we'll loose that extra poundage. Have met some wonderful people & then 1 couple not so good but we have overcomed his negativeness. We now are driving w/our rental car & it is stressful but since we are only on a straight highway it is easy....the bad times come in towns & knowing which way to turn & what to look for. Looking for some lunch in this small town & then we'll be on our way. Miss everyone & we'll try & do pictures as soon as we learn how. Love to all Ron & Carol