Country Mouse and City Mouse

In the fable of the country mouse and the city mouse, the country mouse yearns for the excitement of the big city but then is overwhelmed by the crowds, noise, and crush of people he finds there.


It's a cautionary tale.  Carol and Roger should have remembered it as they left New Zealand.



We loved every minute of New Zealand, but we were ready for a taste of urban life again.  New Zealand's scenery Carol describes as "magic," but most of the country is pretty remote and lacks big-city amenities.

South Bank Promenade

Our first stop was Brisbane, Australia's third-largest city.  Situated on a large river, the city boasts a metro area well in excess of a million people.  The North Bank of the river is downtown. The South Bank has been turned into one vast park, connected by ferries, and boasting a variety of urban recreation opportunities and riverside cafes.

Brisbane is the home of many companies that exploit Australia's vast mineral resources and sits on the South Pacific between Australia's Gold Coast and Sun Coast.


It's a modern city and boasts a climate that would make Floridians green with envy.

We went to Brisbane to visit old friends, Daphne and Dan Kelly...whom we had met on a previous trip to Italy (Greg and Ruth, they say, "hello.")  Dan is the director of Disaster Relief for World Vision and had just returned from an extended stint in the Philippines, where World Vision had been helping people recover from last November's typhoon.

They we wonderful hosts, showing us much of what Queensland has to offer...including the Lost Valley.

Then it was on to Sydney...out of the frying pan and into the fire.
Sydney has 6 million people...almost the size of New York in a country with a population of only 30-million.
It's the corporate, financial and media center of Australia.  It's an international metropolis that has attracted immigrants from around the world.  In fact, Sydney has more Greeks than any city but Athens.

Sydney has so many recent immigrants and international visitors, it has to remind them cars drive on the left-hand side of the road.

It's bustling, noisy, jostling place lit by flashing neon.  After New Zealand's South Island, we found the noise and visual distractions overwhelming.




The first Europeans to settle in Sydney were British convicts, exiled to the then-most-remote part of the world for such crimes as stealing a set of noble-woman's ivory combs.

One of the first governors of the colony of New South Wales was Captain William Bligh...of Mutiny on the Bounty fame.



Bligh proved as popular a governor as he was a ship's captain.  Residents of Sydney...both convict and free...rebelled against his rule, and the British Crown had to send in troops from the motherland to calm things down.


The first convicts settled in a part of Sydney now known as "The Rocks."  The free citizens settled some distance away, not wanting to reside too close to all that riffraff.  You can imagine what life was like in a village of thieves and murderers, ruled by gangs made up of those same thieves and murderers.

While we were in Sydney, a long-simmering controversy came to a head about the houses on "The Rocks."  The housing is old,  historic, and largely run down...and sits right adjacent to the heart of downtown.  The city government decided many of the houses were too dilapidated to repair, and so decided to raze them and erect high-rises in their place.

Preservationists went berserk, backed by unions who represent many of the workers who live in the neighborhood.

The decision is supposedly final.  However, we suspect the fight is not over yet.

Sydney's most famous landmark is...of course...its Opera House.  Before we even arrived in Sydney, Carol had purchased tickets to Madama Butterfly...just so we could go to an opera there.

It turns out Madama Butterfly was not performed in the opera house...but outdoors in a park nearby.

Outdoor opera proved to be quite an experience.  Madama Butterfly takes place on a hillside overlooking Nagasaki Harbor, and here we were at an opera overlooking Sydney Harbor!  In one scene, one of Butterfly's suitors even arrives by boat.

The opera was re-set in modern times with motor launches and taxi cabs delivering the players to the stage.

The set change between acts was very industrial...with large cranes moving the pieces of set into place, then lifting a huge Japanese lantern to simulate moonrise.

Neither of us appreciated the challenges of staging an opera outdoors until we saw this performance...having to deal with sound outdoors, the wind, the water, passing ferries...and the thunder storms across the harbor that punctuated the performance.

Carol got her dose of opera.  But Roger failed to get his dose of baseball.

Photo courtesy of Sydney Morning Herald

Yes, baseball!  For some reason Major League Baseball decided to open its regular season in Sydney this year with the first two regular-season games between the Dodgers and Diamondbacks.

The two games plus two exhibition games against the Australian National Team drew a combined gate of just under 100-thousand...in a cricket oval with 110-thousand seats.  MLB commissioner Bud Selig called the 25,000 average attendance a "rousing success."

Photo courtesy of Sydney Morning Herald.

Perhaps they might have drawn better if they had priced their tickets differently.  Upper-deck bleacher seats went for $99.  Box seats went for $650.  Most of the spectators were American ex-pats or Dodger fans who decided to take an exotic vacation.

All for the opportunity to see such Australian baseball "stars" as former Mariner Ryan Roland Smith pitch against the Dodgers.




Roger decided to save his money for a soccer match in Rome.

One footnote:  Major League Baseball flew 250 tons of infield dirt from San Diego to Australia just for the game.  One Sydney newspaper asked, "Wasn't Australian dirt good enough for the Americans?"

A Last Word on NZ

Our first view of New Zealand from the air

A Lookout, South Island

Fox Glacier. South Island

Tane Manoa, biggest live Kauri tree, North Island

Tauranga while cycling, North Island

Last view of New Zealand, sigh.

Cannot possibly leave NZ without showing everyone just how relaxed Roger has become, and isn't it wonderful.

Goodbye (for now) New Zealand

March 14, 2014 
Happy Birthday Tasha

We awoke on March 14 with heavy hearts, knowing we would be leaving New Zealand.  Roger and Carol were treated with a beautiful sunrise over Auckland Harbor.

These will be some of our memories of New Zealand that we have not written about yet.  Carol could watch Pukekos all day.  

While commonplace on the North Island, they are beautiful with black, blue and purple coloration and bright red-orange beaks.   When threatened, they will often walk away from danger rather than fly. When they fly, take-offs and landings are clumsy, and short flight distances are preferred.  Their legs kind of drag behind, as if the birds have forgotten they even have them.  They have long, thin feet and those of the chicks are gigantic compared to their total size.  

And then there were the beaches.  Opito Bay on the eastern shore of Coromandel Peninsula was the best.  Thank you Gerry, our Auckland host, for the recommendation.  It was the first time in 25 years that Roger and Carol hung out on the beach for day.  We napped, walked, waded in the water, and took in the beauty of our surroundings.  There were about as many people on the beach as you see in the photo above.  That we then had Luke's wood fired pizza followed by a double scoop of ice cream each didn't exactly ruin the day.  It was not the last time in NZ we hung out on a beach and it was our last week there already.  We tried to make up for lost time.  

Of course, there were more ferns than revealed in that blog post, but enough is enough with the fern fixation.  

 The people of New Zealand are friendly, welcoming and warm.   We stopped at countless I-Sites (information offices often staffed by volunteers from the local community) and DOC offices (Department of Conservation) where everyone was helpful.  They suggested everything from routes to wire bridges to letting us know what the weather would be like to what activities were best in the current conditions.   They helped us find lodging near Tutukaka, where we were going snorkeling the next day, when there was a regional farming event in town and we could not find a place to stay on our own...they made lots of phone calls that day, and not just for us.  Folks in restaurants took the time to patiently explain various species of fish that we had never eaten previously.  And then there was the constant surprise of how to get cooking surfaces in communal kitchen to work.  Carol never knew there were so many ways to turn on a stove - or to operate a shower for that matter.  

And every kiwi we spoke to put up with neither of us being able to pronounce any names, be they of birds, flowers, cities, lakes, rivers, animals of every sort, or landmarks.  That has been embarrassing.  




Carol sat in a car or camper van with an atlas on her lap telling Roger about where he was driving.  There were so many geographic features to point out and to describe.   Although she still doesn't know left from right and although Roger could rarely take his eyes off the road to see what they were passing, we made it through 2 months of travel, including some bike time.  We drove past many sights that are on our list for a return visit.  We knew we had to come back before the first week passed.  And, next visit we will spend more time at each stop along with more rest days.  It is hard work to sightsee nearly every day for two months.  We are pooped.

Our last day in Auckland and New Zealand, we took a ferry ride through the harbor and out to Tiritiri, a wildlife reserve.  The kiwis have a tough time creating reserves for native birds and plants, because there were no land mammals in NZ prior to their introduction by Europeans in the 1800s.  The animals introduced were rats, possums, and stoats primarily.  These mammals have decimated forests and killed off entire species of birds.  To create a predator free environment takes years of trapping the culprits and then installing a predator barrier.  It has been done successfully in a number of locations, islands being the easiest for obvious reasons.  However, once predator free,  those visiting the area have to make sure they do not reintroduce the villains.  No open bags are allowed to be brought onto the island.  All shoes are wiped and sprayed to prevent the spread of disease to plant and animal life alike.  The number of visitors is often limited as well.  

Here is some of what we saw on at Tiritiri:  

This is a Takahe, related to the pukeko.  these folks are plump and have more colorful plumage.  Their beaks are also proportionally shorter, as are their legs and feet.  Remember the cute pukeko chicks with the huge feet?  The takake chicks aren't very cute.  

The birds were thought to be extinct after 1898 when four were taken by hunters.  However, they were found in 1948 near Lake Te Anau, in Fijordland.  Through careful planning, there are now about 280 of these birds living mostly in predator free reserves, that is 280 TOTAL, the number of this species remaining.

Tui - Their distinctive call is the first we both could recognize.

North Island Robin

Saddleback - Their distinctive markings make them easily recognizable.

Stitchback - We had heard them for 2 months, but this was our first sighting.

The evening before we left, we had a lovely dinner with Jeannette and Gerry, our hosts.  It was relaxing and we chatted about all kinds of things, as usual when we all sat down together.  We include them as friends and hope they feel the same. 

Great hosts, amazing location.  Standing on the deck with Auckland Harbor in the background around sunset.

Kayaking to Cathedral Cove

Part of the route from cliffs:  Mateuka and Pokeke Islands

Carol really enjoyed kayaking and Roger preferred snorkeling.  So, one day we decided to go our separate ways and enjoy a beautiful morning at Hahei Beach.  Unfortunately, Roger ended up relaxing on the beach instead, as the diving/snorkleing folks said they were going someplace for diving only that morning.  Carol had already left for her adventure.

A small world story:  There were 8 kayakers and a guide for the trip.  Four were single women who the guide paired.  One of the other pair took off her sweats to reveal Mount Holyoke shorts.  Our daughter was a graduate of the same small college in MA.  And, even more surprising was the 2010 Holyoke grad's assigned partner was also an alumna!  What's the probability of that occurring?

We took off on a beautiful morning paddle.  The sky was overcast, but both the air and water were warm and the water was mirror calm, as well.   We paddled out to Mateuka Island and then around Pokeke Island, as there was not enough water to go between them.  There is a slice through one end of Pokeke which we were able to ride through.  That was fun.  We then headed to famed Cathedral Cove.

Once there, we beached the kayaks and roamed around both Cathedral and neighboring Mares' Leg Cove.  The latter was really beautiful.  While the paddlers were roaming, our guide prepared cappuccini or any coffee or coco drink requested, on the beach...impressive.

We kayaked back through several other bays.













By the time we arrived back at Hahei Beach the sun was shining and the day was lovely.  Roger and Carol, back together, then walked to Cathedral Cove along a cliff-side path, stopping at the beaches along the way.  All in all, a lovely day, our last in Coromandel, our last traveling around New Zealand.

Carol lifting the cathedral, at the cove by the same name.

Roger and Carol and Mare's Leg Beach

Then we went to Hot Beach to dig our own thermal baths near low tide - that is, about 10pm.  The water in some spots was so hot it burned to the touch, just a few inches below the surface of the sand.  Ours, once dug, was just right.

Digging the thermal bath.

Relaxed and heading home.