Tag: vacation

Last Day Exploring in Australia

So today (Saturday) was my last full day in Australia – and it was a full day, as I ventured outside of Cairns to Kuranda.

I had a fun day, and it was action packed!

But first, I will share with you my adventure on Friday – Friday I had no plans, the weather was gross – so I took the opportunity to do laundry (as dull as that is) and some paperwork I needed to knock out, as I have about a 24 hour turn around when I arrive back to Wellington before I leave for Dunedin and my road trip with the awesome Rachel to the Energise Conference in Queenstown. However, in teh late afternoon the showers had cleared a little bit, so I spent some time at the pool, then decided that I wanted to try something new for dinner, so I headed to the Bayleaf Balinese Restaurant to give it a try. I settled on the be sampi mebase bali (braised beef in coconut milk) – and it came with rice, pickled veggies and some sort of sprouts side dish that was spicy and good. It was delicious – and the portion was huge – I only finished about half before I was stuffed.

But anyway – back to today. I caught my shuttle at 7:30 and headed to the Railway Station to take the Scenic Railway to Kuranda.

We arrived with plenty of time to spare, so I spent some time exploring the railway station, museum and old cottage before boarding the train.

The construction of the railway was treacherous, and was completed with hand tools. . . Crazy!

The ride up was gorgeous.

The train stopped briefly at Barron Falls Station – with great overlooks:

Then we finished the journey and arrived in Kuranda.

Kuranda is small and super touristy – but I decided to hit up the 3 wildlife parks – starting with the Australian Butterfly Sanctuary.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Then, my next stop was the Bird Sanctuary – these birds were amazing – and very mischievous – you can see my friend (A Macaw) who decided to hang out and try and open the zippers on my backpack!

At this point it was pouring, so I stopped for lunch, where I had a reptile join me beside my table and I had a sampler platter of Emu, Kangaroo and Crocodile – and made the mistake of posting the picture with #minifigmerry on Twitter – and got some interesting tweets – about the inhumanity of consuming meat – whoops. . .

After lunch, I headed to the last of the Wildlife parks – the Koala Sanctuary – I had not planned to do a wildlife experience here, as I had done one in the blue mountains – but the girl convinced me – they had an extra spot – and I could actually hold the koala – so I did it – the cost was less than $15 USD, by the way.

Meet my friend Yoshi:

IMG_5401

It was like holding a sleepy toddler – Yoshi kept leaning his head in.

I explored the rest of the park.

Then I headed back to the Cable Way. There were 2 stations on the way down – and I was able to stop at each, walk around and enjoy the rain forest before ending my journey and catching the bus back to the hotel.

It was a great day – and a neat way to end my Australian Adventure – now I guess I should pack – I have an airplane shuttle to catch tomorrow!

Snorkeling in the Great Barrier Reef

So today was absolutely amazing – and a total bucket list item – many of you know that when I was young we lived in a trailer on the lake on Corps of Engineer property at Little River Landing off of Bells Ferry – so I could swim about the same time I could walk. Water – particularly coral reefs have always fascinated me. I have snorkeled and scubaed throughout the Caribbean, Florida and recently New Zealand – and I have always dreamed of snorkeling or diving in Australia at the Great Barrier reef – and I am so blessed that I have now had this opportunity. Today I snorkeled in 3 sites within the Great Barrier Reef, all on a Reef called Flynn Reef. (Unfortunately due to having had Sinus Surgery and being cautioned by my ENT that diving would likely be uncomfortable, I was not sold on the idea of scubadiving, and I was told by many that snorkeling was just as good, if not better, and I was not at all disappointed.)

But, back to Flynn Reef.

Here is a diagram from Pro Dive Cairns Queensland that shows where Flynn is located:

Great Barrier Reef Dive Site Maps – 

Great Barrier Reef Map

Unfortunately the wind was high (30 Knots) and the sea was quite rough – so there was a lot of sea sickness on the way out – including yours truly. (even after meds, as they were highly recommended by the crew given the sea conditions) Seasickness was another first for me, in fact – but not one I really would like to repeat. I will spare you the details, but I assure you that everyone on the boat (including the crew) was glad when we docked at our first spot of the 3 locations we were visiting.

We stopped at 3 great sights on Flynn Reef: Tracy’s, Gordon’s and Coral Gardens.

Here is a close up of the reef with these sites marked, again from Pro Dive:

Flynn Reef Map

I saw all sorts of fish, a turtle, a small shark, rays and so much beautiful colorful coral that I just can’t even explain the beauty. It’s amazing that such a small organism can join together to make such a large living thing. I am going to let pictures and videos do the talking now.

First, Tracy’s site (with 2 videos):

 

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Next stop – Gordon’s Site:

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

and the final site was Coral Gardens:

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

So yeah – it was an amazing day. . . I hope you enjoyed the pictures and videos! 🙂

Beautiful Monday in the Blue Mountains

Monday was an adventure packed day, to say the least – we packed so much into a day – and that was thanks to Anderson’s Tours, and my awesome tour guide: Scott (I think – I should have written down his name) he was superb and added things to the day that weren’t on the itinerary because the group wanted them. The group was 20 people – 2 of use were solo female travelers, there were several older couples who were doing this trip before boarding their cruise ships headed to NZ and other cities in Australia, a mother daughter pair, and a few other couples just vacationing in Sydney. It was a fun group – with Americans, Kiwis, Aussies, Canadians, Germans, Brits and South Koreans all represented – so we were a multicultural, quite fun group.

The day started at 7:30 at Circular Quay – I walked from the hostel (3k). We loaded up on our bus, and set out to the Blue Mountains.

After about a 2 hour drive, we arrived in the Blue Mountains, and were greeting with fantastic vistas. Much like the reason the Blue Ridge Mountains back home are “blue”, the Blue Mountains in Australia are  so named because, from Sydney, they look blue. The eucalypts (gum trees), which in the hot sun discharge a fine mist of eucalyptus oil from their leaves. This mist refracts light, which makes the haze look blue at a distance.

Our first order of business was to explore Scenic World a “theme park” with some cool scenic rides. Ride #1 was the Funicular Railway – the steepest incline railway in the world. It has a 128% incline – or 52 degrees. I captured a video going down:

The mountain you see is Serenity Mountain. You will see in the pictures below that I was REALLY happy they updated the cars – the original ones were freaky scary!

After we go off the railway, our guide took us on a little bush walk – talking about the cool flora and fauna we were seeing. There were also remnants and information from the coal mining roots of the village.

After our little walk, we boarded the Cableway back up – the car was crowded, so I don’t have the best pictures, but trust me, the views were amazing!

The next stop was the glass bottom Skyway, which gave us more vistas, a look down at the gorge and a small waterfall.

Next we got back in the mini-bus, and headed to Echo Point, where we looked at the overlook to the 3 Sisters rock formations. There are several legends about the 3 sisters, and most relate to the Pleiades star cluster – I encourage you to Bing or Google and check some out. The Gundungurra and Darug tribes of Australia’s Aboriginal people are a few of many tribes that hold this area sacred. It was tourist-palooza – but an amazing sight to see.

Our next stop – I told y’all it was a fun-filled day – we aren’t even to lunch yet! – was the Waradah Aboriginal Center and show – I learned so much about Aboriginal cultures, and really enjoyed the history of the Didgeridoo and the other stories they shared with us! I have a few videos as well as some pictures.

Once the show was over, we thought we were headed to lunch, but our AMAZING guide had a bit of a surprise in store for us. If we were willing to miss a little lunch time, we could actually take the hike back to the bus, since several folks wanted to walk the trail. Most of us agreed – and a few were shuttled back, and we did the trail. It was totally worth the amazing views – I mean – I am so glad he took us on this journey – because I would have missed these amazing views!

After our hike, we did go have lunch, at an Australian Country Club – lunch was fine – but I was so glad that we traded the hike for the longer lunch – after all – I am a teacher – I can eat in 10 mins – no problem!

But my friends, this day still wasn’t done – our next stop (we thought) was the Wildlife Park – where we knew we would see some of Australia’s most famous creatures, but our guide had another surprise for us – I mean – seriously – this guy was amazing – there were 2 other tours operated by the same company that day – and I think my bus definitely got the best deal and bang for our buck.  He took us to Lennox Bridge – which is the oldest stone arch bridge on the Australian Mainland – cool, right?

We then headed to the Featherdale Wildlife Park, a conservation and animal rescue. . .I got to touch a koala – and I have pictures to prove it! 🙂

I also saw wombats, kangaroos, Tasmanian devils, blue penguins, kookaburras, pelicans, the most venomous snake in the world and all sorts of amazing animals – it was definitely a bucket list experience. I will let the pictures speak for themselves though!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

We left the park, and headed to our final adventure – cruise on the Parramatta River to the Sydney Harbor – at sunset. It was the perfect way to end a fantastic day.

I disembarked at Darling Harbor, and went to an Irish Pub with WiFi to have dinner, a nice stout, and work on my blog. It was a fantastic, amazing, unbelievable day! One more day in Sydney (no plans, so we will see what I get up to), before heading to Cairns and the Great Barrier Reef!

A Sunny Sydney Sunday

Easter Sunday I awoke to a beautiful sunny morning in Sydney. I had not planned appropriately in my packing to attend church on Easter Sunday, and originally thought that I was just going to be a total Easter slacker, but that was not to be the case, as you will see. I started my morning walking back to Central Station (about 10 minutes from my hostel, if that). My bus tour was a 48 hour pass, and I still had the second “loop” to do, which would take me to the famous Bondi Beach.

The drive out to Bondi was pretty cool – again – you definitely can see the Victorian influence on Sydney.

When I disembarked the bus at Bondi, I was greeted with some pretty fantastic vistas, and an interesting site – a church that had set up a “beach-side” Easter service on the lawn by the beach – and I was right on time. I popped into the service and enjoyed it before continuing my journey to the white sand glistening from Bondi.

I plopped on the beach – and enjoyed the views of the waves, the sunshine, and yes, the surfers.

It was a quite enjoyable way to spend an afternoon. Unfortunately, I did have some work I needed to do, which required wifi – as well as a blog update I started last night that I wanted to get rolling, so I went to the place where I knew I could get some decent WiFi, and complete some work – no where other than McDonald’s (which they call Macca’s here in Australia and New Zealand). I grabbed a coffee and knocked out some work.

Once I had finished both my (crazy large) coffee – and my work, I set back out, and re-boarded the bus. I rode the Bondi Bus back – taking in new views – and adding a chapter to my future book of things obnoxious tourists do, brought to you by a bunch of young adults with a selfie-stick – seriously – I could write a book – about obnoxious tourists from all over the world.

The views, as usual, were fantastic – despite selfie stick girl trying to impress the young men with her (who I have hopefully cropped out of all the pictures).

 

At this point I decided, since I had paid for the bus, I would use it to see the city for the rest of the day. I started by transferring buses at St. Mary’s Church – so I walked around a bit, and was even rewarded with a cool water show from the fountains.

After that little detour, I boarded the bus, headed for the Royal Botanical Gardens, where I spent the rest of my time (until they closed at dusk). I was rewarded for staying in the Gardens by the amazing views at the end – Y’all  – Sydney is certainly a beautiful city!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

After I left the gardens, I caught the bus once more, and headed to Darling Harbor for dinner – another bucket list item for me, as I headed for a Brazilian Churrascaria – oh it was yummy!

I left Darling Harbor, caught an Uber to my hostel, and crashed – excited about a big day tomorrow in the Blue Mountains – and seeing some koalas, kangaroos and more!

 

W.O.W. – A museum with something for all tastes (fashion, art and cars!) – and an exciting journey for me!

I know that many of you are eagerly anticipating information about my school visits, however, I am working within the bounds of some ethics and privacy considerations and other logistics – I will share more general reflections soon when I have visited more schools, I promise – but my time in Nelson was fantastic. Gaye Bloomfield (@gayeblooms) Microsoft Innovative Educator Expert, Coffee lover and teacher extraordinaire (can you see where we would totally get along?) went out of her way to make me feel welcome, and planned a spectacular week for me visiting schools of all levels and with all unique feels. I really feel like I have “experienced” all levels of Kiwi education now, and that sets me up quite nicely for the framework of my project.

I did get a few opportunities to play as well – starting with a lovely dinner and conversation on Monday night with Gaye. We had a delicious meal and talked for hours about all sorts of things – I think given a combination of enough coffee and wine, we could solve some serious world problems!

Check out the awesome dessert we had:

IMG_3551

Tuesday afternoon I had some free time, and explored the National WOW Museum – a unique museum that combines the Gallery of fashion from the World of Wearable Art shows, along with this massive collection of rare and classic cars both from all over the world.

The outfits were amazing works of art, and in each and every case, someone did wear them for the show. Many are thematic, and some were quite, well, off kilter might be one way to describe it, but I was in awe of the precision and the artistry of the pieces. In some cases I have included the description next to the photo, while in others you can just use your imagination. I did have a few favorites.

At the end was a viewing room where you could watch a video of the highlights of the World of Wearable Art Show, a huge international design competition where these amazing pieces are unveiled.

After the fashion art, I wandered to the next gallery – full of classic cars, super fancy cars, engines and other mechanical type stuff. Y’all – I am way out of my wheel house here – mostly I’m like – look a shiny car – but there were some seriously cool vehicles here to see.

Look through the album for yourself – there were cars that make today’s mini cars look gargantuan, cars that were the size of tanks, and my personal favorite item of luxury – the car with recliners in the back seat (If you can afford that car, my guess is you have a chauffeur, and you are enjoying the recliner).

It was also interesting to see the cars that obviously were collected and imported (remember, they drive on the left here).  It was a cool variety – and I know some of you (I’m looking at you Tom Green) will be quite in heaven looking at these cars.

While I was at the Museum I got a rather exciting email response to something I have been working on since before I left the US – because my project is focused on the use of digital technologies in a variety of situations, I have really strived to find schools of all types, all over New Zealand to visit and connect with.  The carrot that was dangling out in front of me was the ability to visit a school with significant geographical isolation (which is hard, because these schools are very small – we are talking 20 or so students from grades 1 – 8 typically, and only one to two teachers, one of whom is a teaching principal). We had communicated a bit before I left the US, but I had been unable to schedule with school just starting here (Feb is their first month of school here), but I got a response, so in May I will be given the great opportunity to visit this school on Stewart Island (and do some programming with those students). Stewart Island, also called Rakiura is the island south of the south Island of New Zealand, an island that is home to less than 400 permanent residents. The only way to travel commercially to Stewart Island is by a small ferry across the  Foveaux Strait, or a fixed wing flight from Invercargill. At 47° South, it is likely the furthest south this girl will ever travel! If I am lucky – I might even get a chance to view the Aurora Australis – talk about a bucket list item! I am going to make an adventure of this trip, knocking out my South Island school visits during the week, and my bucket list items on the weekend. I will start by flying to Dunedin and visiting schools (and MIEE Rachel @ibpossum), then a weekend road trip through the Caitlins to Invercargill to head to Stewart Island, followed by a weekend in Te Anau and Milford Sound, then a trip to Christchurch to see some schools (and stay in a hostel that was once a jail), before checking out the Aoraki Mackenzie Dark Sky Reserve and Lake Tekapo and the Mount John Observatory before heading back to Windy Welly. (I have not forgotten about Queenstown, by the way – I am attending a conference there in April). All in all – can you tell I am excited for this? It looks like I am going to be on the road for much of April and May, with trips to schools in Auckland;  a brief vacation during term break to Australia (Sydney and Cairns and the Great Barrier Reef); Energise Conference in Queenstown, then my South Island Adventure.

After exploring the museum, and doing some work in the cafe, I headed back to the hostel, then grabbed dinner at a lovely Mexican restaurant – where I had my first truly authentic Mexican food since I have been in NZ – Fajitas for the win!

Tomorrow I have school visits and a board meeting, which I am quite excited about attending, before I head back to Wellington and the North Island on Thursday. Nelson has been good to me!

Hobbiton

So today was the day I ventured to Hobbiton. I took the tour that provided transport from Rotorua. We meet at the Hobbiton shop in Rotorua, where #Minifigmerry got to meet Gandalf.

(a side note – Hobbiton tours contacted me and asked if they could use the Minifigmerry and Gandalf picture – I said yes, of course!)

The drive from Rotorua to Matamata was about an hour, and while we were driving there were a view videos about the process of creating (and tearing down, and recreating Hobbiton), and our guide also kept us entertained with local stories and sightseeing. Again – I am finding that bus is a great way to see the lovely NZ countryside.

One of the coolest things he shared with us was about these metal sculptures in one of the towns we passed through. The town Tirau was the first place that Steven Clothier made and placed one of these sculptures, which are made of corrugated iron – just like a roof. These sculptures line the town now, and are really pretty cool, if not a little kitschy. The Dog, was the first sculpture, and was completed in 1998.

You can read more here, and see more (and much better pictures than my blurry from the bus pictures below) here on his website: http://www.corrugatedcreations.co.nz/. He has probably made a sculpture of most everything you can imagine – animals, plants, flip-flops, even Jesus!

After the drive, we arrived at the Alexander Family Farm – and it truly felt like we were in the shire as we drove through the rolling farmland.

Some history about Hobbiton – This farm was used for both the Lord of The Rings and The Hobbit trilogies. Sir Peter Jackson discovered this farm in 1998. The built the set for LoTR, and then promptly destroyed it. It was a condition of the contract, both with the Alexander family and the movie studio that the farm be returned to “it’s natural state” and that all filming artifacts be removed, as the movie studio owned all of the intellectual property and creations. However, the weather did not cooperate completely with that plan, and in 2000, once filming at the Shire was a wrap, an attempt at demolition was made, and they were unable to do it because of an unseasonably wet season.

The Alexander Farm was left with only about 17 plywood facades, with a plan to demolish once they could do that with out disturbing the land. However, the power of a fairly obsessive Tolkien fandom is strong, and even with very little remnants of the set, the Alexanders found themselves with lots of “visitors”.

In what I am sure has been a smart business move for them, they started offering guided tours of Hobbiton starting in 2002.  Early visitors would have just seen this:

In 2009 Peter Jackson got the negotiations completed to film the Hobbit Trilogy, and he returned to the Alexander’s Family Farm to film – and the rest is history – as a part of the contract to use the space, the agreement was made to keep the set “intact” using more sturdy construction, and the current Hobbiton was born, with 44 completed Hobbit holes.

Additionally, in 2012 the Green Dragon was added as a functional place to grab a flagon. The tour of Hobbiton was amazing, and it truly felt as if I was in the Shire. The attention to detail at Hobbiton is crazy – It goes a long way to explaining the genius and success of Sir  Peter Jackson as well as his fashioning of New Zealand as the perfect Middle Earth – the best commercial ever for New Zealand – cause guys, I know I keep saying this this country is AMAZING – and I haven’t even really scratched the surface! More here: http://www.hobbitontours.com/

A few notes as you look through the pictures:

  • The hobbit holes that are the “same” are different sizes for perspective. (Gandalf and Frodo size, for instance).
  • At many hobbit holes you can see the trade of the residents – there are beekeepers, fishermen and more – see what you can find.
  • Many of the holes never even made it into the movie at all – again – Sir Peter Jackson has a crazy attention to detail.
  • There are no rooms behind the doors – they are just dirt floors, mostly used for garden storage.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Thankful that the rain held out for the tour, I enjoyed my nice stout, then we got back on the bus, headed back to Rotorua, and I still had the afternoon to explore, but I will put that in the next post.

Also, as another cool side note, one of the streets was called “Merry Meander” – guess where it leads? Straight to the Green Dragon – coincidence? I think not!


 

Making an Itinerary ~ 41 days, 2 hours and 23 minutes

map

Perhaps the most daunting task in planning for this trip has been setting an itinerary. Possible locations in Europe abound, and the logistics of staying with friends in some locations (Vienna, Oldenburg and Paris) and the reality of the amount of time I really have is the grounding force. As a solo traveler, I am trying to balance the idea of being uber safe (with a thoroughly planned itinerary), and being a bit more impulsive and spontaneous. In many areas (like lodging), being more planned is winning out – but I am leaving some wide open days to just see where the day (or my rail pass) takes me. I have figured out where I am sleeping each night, and do have some tours, experiences and reservations booked, but other days are wide open – so I can hop on a train and have Pirogues in Poland for lunch, or stay in Berlin and explore Museum Island; on a day while in Vienna, I could explore Budapest, Pannonhalma Abbey, Győr, Sopron, Salzburg or . . .? There is something completely liberating, but a little out of my comfort zone about this whole process, but I have made my over prepared, planning self make sure not to “over schedule” and leave some openings for new chances I haven’t even considered as an option.

So, for all those that have inquired – here is my itinerary (as of this second. . . ). 🙂

  • Days 1-7 – London – with trips to Bath, Isle of Wight and of course the Harry Potter Studio Tour at Leavesden
  • Night 7 – Night Bus to Brussels
  • Days 8 – 12  – Rail to Vienna, Austria – with some possible trips to Bratislava, Slovakia; places in Hungary; or other places in Vienna
  • Day 13 – Day in Munich; Dachau?
  • Night 13 – Night Train to Berlin
  • Days 14 – 16 – Berlin (possibly a trip for lunch in Poland?)
  • Days 17 – 19 – Days Oldenburg, Germany (Bremen? Hamburg?)
  • Days 20 – 22 – Amsterdam (Brugges?)
  • Night 22 Night Train to Zurich
  • Days 23 – Bernina Pass (Stop and ride funicular at Bernina Diavolezza)
  • Night 23 – Tirano, Italy
  • Day 24 – Travel to Paris
  • Days 25 – 31 Paris

WHEW! What an Adventure! 🙂

Merry

#Countdown ~ 48 days, 6 hours, 38 minutes

FullSizeRender

As the days tick down, my excitement grows. At this moment there are 48 days, 6 hours and 38 minutes until I will be sitting on a runway in Atlanta about to take off, heading to Europe for my great adventure. This is certainly going to be a memorable journey, visiting at least 10 countries (who knows where else I might wander with a rail pass in hand) and traveling more that 12,000 miles when it is all said and done. I have been dreaming of this trip for a lifetime, and planning it since November. I can hardly believe that it is all really coming together. I have my flight booked, a rail pass and some essential train reservations, lodging situated, and have even booked experiences like the Harry Potter Studio Tour, the Roman Baths in Bath, Isle of Wight, High Tea at Claridges, Dachau tour, access to the German Bundestag plenary for a special lecture and Reichstag Dome in Berlin, Anne Frank House and the Bernina Pass through Switzerland (not to mention everything that London, Brugges, Vienna, Munich and Paris have to offer). This blog will be a place to share thoughts, experiences, photos, videos and more as I travel through Europe and experience this fabulous trip! 0 miles completed!