Australia & New Zealand

While we were down in the Southern Hemisphere, we thought we would take advantage of the opportunity to see Australia & New Zealand before returning to Canada.  So we flew to Sidney and took a 14 day cruise to Melbourne, Tasmania, and several stops in New Zealand.  Here are some photos and highlights of our trip.

Holland America Cruise Line

The M.S. Noordam

Inside the M.S. Noordam

Before boarding the Cruise, we spent a 

day exploring Sidney by bus, and also a 

boat tour around the beautiful harbor.

The famous Sidney Opera House

The Sidney skyline viewed from the harbor.

We took a nice walk from Manley Beach
to Shelly Beach in Sidney....beautiful.

While in Sidney, we met a couple of Australian
celebrities... my good friend, Nicole Kidman.

Paul Hogan fought off this crocodile and saved Ann!

We couldn't visit Tasmania without
seeing a real Tasmanian Devil

And of course, we couldn't visit Australia
without seeing real Koalas.

A Koala in the wild.  How can you not
fall in love with these cuddly animals.

A Wallaby.

A Cassowary, similar to an Emu.

We found this wild Emu in a reserve we visited.

And yes, they really do have these.

Kangaroos run wild, just like deer do.

This kangaroo is just as interested
in us as we are in him.

I wouldn't have believed they would have
this kind of sign, unless I saw it for myself.

This crocodile was about 16 feet long! 

I was feeling brave, but don't try this at home

This was the biggest penguin I've ever seen

The name of this town in Tasmania was "Penguin"

Even their garbage cans are penguins. 

Again, I wouldn't have believed
there was such a sign like this
until I actually saw one for real. 

These were some amazing penguins in the
Auckland Marine Aquarium Center.

We could even watch them swim under the water

This "Yellow Eyed" penguin was found in
the wild walking in an isolated sandy beach.
They are almost extinct, so we were lucky...

This was an amazing penguin mural painted
on a wall in Christchurch, New Zealand.

In Dunedin, New Zealand, we took a trip
on these army type "Argo" vehicles into
the back country to find all kinds of wildlife

They gave us coats to keep the dust off...

This seal was one of the animals we
found on the remote beach during
our trip on the Argo vehicle.

This wild seal was hiding in the rocks.

There was a whole family of seals...

We got up close & personal with this
dolphin.   Too bad it wasn't real!

On this boat trip, we did find real dolphins

These rare "King Shags" were also
found on our boat trip.  

Another colorful bird

Red feet and a red beak...

More colors to show off...

It was interesting to learn all about Captain
Cook's explorations and discovering
Australia and New Zealand.  

We enjoyed white water rafting near Napier

We went to a sheep farm near Wellington
and watched a demonstration of how they
train sheep dogs to herd all those sheep.

There are 10 sheep for every person
living in New Zealand.

These dogs are very clever.

We found this dinosaur just
roaming wild on the beach!

The skyline of Melbourne, a very nice city

A nice memorial in Melbourne

The ferry boat from Tasmania to Australia

The famous train station in Dunedin.

The skyline of Auckland, New Zealand.

The town of Napier was leveled
by a huge earthquake in 1931,
and then rebuilt in the 1930's era

The town is still decorated in
the 1930's era, today.

There are many 1930's vehicles
around the town.It's quite unique

This local lady was very friendly as
we hi-fived each other.

We had fun visiting a huge Kiwi farm in
New Zealand, learning all about all the
amazing things that are done to grow this
great miracle fruit.

We learned there are golden Kiwis,
as well as the traditional green Kiwi fruit.

Help!  Let me out of this giant Kiwi!

The Kiwi store had everything Kiwi....

It was amazing to visit one of the
orchards in the area where they
grow 80% of the world's Kiwi fruit.

They even make Kiwi ice cream

We were entertained by a real New Zealand
Maori family singing & dancing together.

Part of the dance is putting on their
most scary warrior like face.

They are pretty good with the Poi Balls

Ann was one of the chosen guests to come up
to the front to learn how to use the Poi Balls

This Maori family adopted Ann after they
saw how good she was with the Pio Balls.

After walking along the beach, we took a
beautiful walk around Mt. Maunganui
that you can see in the background.

This was one of the stops on our hike.

Amazing rock formations along the beach.

This beach along our walk was covered
deep with millions of seashells.
This should complete our shell collection!

Here's a close up of some of the seashells 

What a great place to walk...

At the end of our walk, I was able to rest
on this very interesting tree.

This cathedral in Christchurch was badly
damaged in the huge earthquake
that leveled much of the city in 2011.

When the downtown was destroyed in the
earthquake, a mall was set up using several
boat shipping crates.

This is a temporary memorable set up for
the 185 people who died in the earthquake,
representing 185 chairs now left empty...

This is a sober reminder that there were
children and disabled people who died in the quake

We enjoyed visiting the Cadbury factory
in Dunedin, New Zealand, who ship most
of their candy all over the world.

These were real Cadbury delivery trucks
from the 1930's. 

On the tour, they gave us samples of the
unique candy made only for New Zealand.
They also gave us cups of runny chocolate
(all you can eat) to enjoy, as well.
It's hard to believe, but I finally reached the point
where I couldn't eat another bite of chocolate.

Although photos just can't do justice to the
amazing beauty of New Zealand, we thought
we'd share a few of them, anyway.

One of the most beautiful sights was at the
south tip of New Zealand, the Fjords.

We cruised through Milford Sound,
Dusty Sound, and Doubtful Sound.

It's like the rocky mountains reaching
down to the ocean.  Quite remarkable.

There were literally thousands of huge,
amazing waterfalls where ever we looked.

We saw dozens of different light
houses on several beaches.

I've become a huge Rugby fan since living
in Fiji, so it was great to be in the country
of the "All Blacks" New Zealand team who
have won the world cup in 2011 & 2015.

This is the stadium in Wellington where the
"All Blacks" play most of their home games

This interesting statue shows how the Rugby
players are fighting against many demons...

I purchased an "All Blacks" shirt to keep
as a souvenir of the sport of Rugby. It will
go nice with my Fiji Rugby shirt, as well.

Well, those are a few of the highlights of our tour of Australia & New Zealand.  We were so happy we were able to do this trip during our time down here in Fiji.  We thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience.  We are now rested and ready to go back to Fiji to see how the post cyclone rebuilding is going, and to continue our humanitarian mission to provide eye care to more Fijians before we return to Canada in less than two weeks.