Half-way

Picked up at our hotel at 7:25 and on the 8:30 ferry from Kangaroo Island to the mainland. For about 10 minutes while on board and waiting to leave plus the entire 45 minute trip, we lived the scene from Annie Hall, the one where Annie and Alvy are waiting in line at the movies and someone trying hard to sound smart and impress a girl is just spouting off like a fool. In our case, it was a fellow from Canada, talking at a German woman on matters from automobiles to nationalism to the Holocaust (lots of lies and exaggerations, he said) to the Jewish cabal controlling so much of the world to plots by Big Oil and Big Pharma to control our health care. I couldn’t take a reading, but I’m pretty sure Roslyn’s blood pressure went up to about 240 over 160 at one point.

Because this was really happening and not part of a movie, there was no expert I could pull from the wings to shut this guy up. We decided not to give any additional fuel to his fire by engaging with him. I feared we’d have to endure another two hours of his ranting, when he boarded the bus we were on heading back into Adelaide. Mercifully, no one sat next to him, and he was quiet the entire ride back.

We were picked up from the bus by a driver, who took our bags and asked me what I thought of Donald Trump.

“I wish I could leave him here with you,” I said.

“I ask all the Americans I drive what they think of him,” he said matter-of-factly. “None of them like him.”

Quickly settled back at our hotel, we walked the 15 minutes to the Central Market for lunch and to buy muffins for tomorrow’s breakfast. We’ll be up and on our way to the airport before dawn tomorrow. Final destination: Queenstown, New Zealand, and the second half of our trip.

I can tell you most sincerely that I’ve been looking forward to visiting Australia for many years, and it exceeded by expectations.

The friendliest people I’ve found. I thought everyone would greet me with a “G’day!” But I only heard that once or twice. The standard greeting from people of all ages and in all situations is, “How ya goin’?” Depending on how thick the accent, it can sound like “Hah ya goin’? or “High ya goin’?” or “Hay ya goin’?” I heard them all.

The standard replies to a “Thank you” are “No worries,” or “That’s all right.”

Food in restaurants is more expensive here than in the U.S. But tipping isn’t expected. At many casual restaurants, you sit down, look over the menu, then go up to the bar to order your meal.

The biodiversity here amazes me. So many colorful birds as common as pigeons. Kangaroos and wallabies all over the place. Adelaide is capital of the state of South Australia. Almost nothing is built out of wood here, because the termites are so ferocious. We saw termite nest shaped like domes, three feet high. Utility poles are made out of concrete and steel.

We figured this would be a once-in-a-lifetime trip, because it’s 19 hours of flying and expensive. And it may well be. But it’s worth the time and the expense, and I’d gladly come back here again some day. Good on ya, Australia.

A Taste of Honey

Our first activity on our last day on Kangaroo Island was a visit to Clifford’s, where they keep bees, bottle the honey, and use the honey to make all sorts of edibles. The chocolate-covered honeycomb was good; the honey ice cream, not so much. I”m sorry to say. Cool fact about the honeybees on Kangaroo Island: they’re all from Liguria, Italy. And since bees have a range of only about three-and-a-half miles, they’re not flying off to anyplace else and no other bees are flying in.

We had lunch at a wildlife sanctuary that is home to dozens—maybe hundreds—of koalas that roam freely there. Roam may be a bit of an overstatement, since koalas sleep for 16-21 hours each day. The polar opposite of “busy as a bee” is anything as a koala. But they are awfully cute.

We were then off to the western tip of this almost 100 mile long island. That entire western end of the island is a national park, called Flinders Chase National Park. It’s named in honor of Matthew Flinders, a British Naval officer who did much of the coastal exploration of Australia in the 18th century. Many cities have streets named in his honor, too.

One of the most notable features of the park is a granite formation that bubbled up millions of years ago called The Remarkable Rocks. And they are.

.

Another cool feature there is called The Admiral’s Arch.

And best of all, at least from my friend Harold’s point of view, is the cool lighthouse there.

That’s a wrap for today. Early start tomorrow on our last full day in Australia before we go to New Zealand.

Her Heart's Desire

We were picked up at our hotel at 6:15 this morning; the start of a two-day excursion to Kangaroo Island. A 90 minute bus ride to Port Jervis, then a 45 minute ferry trip brought us to this third-largest Australian island.

Our first stop was a farm the grows and harvests eucalyptus trees, and produces and bottles eucalyptus and other essential oils. The farm owner was a hoot; a man with no use for any government officials and no compunction about sharing his opinions. “That’s some experiment you blokes tried with Trump,” he said with a derisive laugh.

“That’s a generous way of describing it,” I allowed.

Next was a lunch stop, and then we were off to Seal Bay, home to the largest colony of the endangered Australian Sea Lion. They were pretty much just lying on the beach, soaking up the sun.

After that, we visited a raptor rehab project. They take in injured hawks, owls and eagles. A barn owl sat on my lap, and I got to hold a wedge-tailed eagle.

If you had asked me before we left for this trip what I wished for most in Australia, I’m not sure what I would have said. But no question, Roslyn would have told you her heart’s desire was to hold a koala.

Priceless.

Happy New Year!

Today marked the start of the Chinese New Year; we are now in the Year of the Pig. We have been warned by friends who’ve traveled here at this time of the year and by several Australians to expect big crowds of vacationing Chinese, but we haven’t seen that here in Adelaide.

We kicked off the new year by turning in our rental car after about 800 miles of driving. We were having trouble finding the Hertz office, tucked away on a little side street in the heart of the central business district. I finally pulled over into a parking space. I noticed a parking enforcement officer nearby (well I can’t very well call him a meter maid). Roslyn called out to him for help.

“We’re lost! We’re trying to get to the Hertz office on Blyth Street, but we can’t find it and we’re driving around in circles,” she explained.

“What does it cost to hire a car for a drive to Melbourne? I’ve been thinking of doing that,” he said. He had a job to do, but he had as much time as we needed to be friendly and helpful.

After a nice chat about vacation plans, he finally got down the going over the map with us. We were only a few blocks away. He showed us exactly how to get there. Honestly, if Roslyn had asked him to ride with us just to make sure we got there, I think he would have done so gladly.

Our next adventure in this fair city was at the Adelaide Central Market.

This large enclosed space in the heart of the city is celebrating its sesquicentennial this year. Some of the vendors in market have been there for a hundred years. Just about anything you can eat or drink is there. That includes some foods you might not want to eat.

As luck would have it, we were at the Central Market not only on the start of the Chinese New Year, but also on World Nutella Day. The market was helping to host Nutalla Palooza, which included crepes made with Nutella and one of several fruits of your choice. Roslyn went with banana.

Not being a particular Nutella fan, I went to one of the bakery stalls and had a custard-filled almond croissant. We also bought two large muffins for our breakfast tomorrow (we’re getting a very early start and will miss the free breakfast here in the hotel).

When we left the market, we decided to try the free tram. We got on, and started talking about where we might get off. A grizzled fellow with the thick beard and thicker Australia accent asked where we were from.

“Atlanta, Georgia,” I said.

He nodded.

“Figured we’d just go about the city and see what we could see,” I continued.

“That’s what you do when you travel,” he affirmed.

The tram stopped and we decided to get off.

“Good on ya’s,” was his cheerful benediction.

We walked and walked through this beautiful city, which is home to three-quarters of this state’s population. If you’re wondering if it was named for someone (I was), it is. When the city was established in 1836, William IV was England’s king. His wife, the queen consort, was named Adelaide. The king does have a major street named in his honor.

While strolling around our hotel neighborhood yesterday, I saw bunches of rainbow lorikeets eating leaves and nuts in trees lining one of the streets. I went back there today, with my camera.

To see these amazingly colorful birds congregating the way we’d see cardinals or blackbirds in Atlanta just blew my mind.

It was getting near time for dinner. The obvious choice: Chinese. The House of Chow was just a few blocks away. It’s a lovely, moderately priced and apparently very popular restaurant. There weren’t many Asians dining there,which normally would be a red flag. But the food was very good. We shared scallops with snow peas and chicken with cashews.

Roslyn asked our—need I say it?—very friendly server what the Year of the Pig signified. She brought us a few laminated sheets detailing the Year of the Pig and want it meant for people born in the years of other animals. I’m a Year of the Snake guy. The laminated sheet said that in the Year of the Pig, I should smile, breathe and go slowly. I don’t usually put much stock in astrology and the like, but those sound to me like words to live by.

Police Story

When we opened the curtains at the front of our cabin this morning, we looked out to see a kangaroo eating the grass; a nice sendoff for us!

We hit the road a little before nine, taking advantage of a short-cut our hotel owner David had given us. It saved us from having to drive up and over the mountain to get to the highway that would take us to Adelaide.

We had been on the highway about 15 minutes when we saw flashing lights coming up right behind us. I was being pulled over by the cops. We were in the middle of nowhere. I hadn’t been speeding. What could it be?

“Good morning, officer!” I said in my cheeriest voice and with a big smile on my face.

“Good morning,” Senior Constable Mick Ryan replied, as his partner came around the passenger side of the car, scaring the daylights out of Roslyn. Constable Ryan was also smiling. “How ya’ going? Where are you from?”

“Atlanta, Georgia.”

“Atlanta? You should be there today,” he said, referring to the Super Bowl.

“Oh no, I’d much rather be here in Australia today,” I told him.

“May I see a driver’s license,” he asked.

“Certainly,” I said, fishing it out and handing it over.

“Have you had anything alcoholic to drink today?”

“No,” I scoffed in my best “as if” tone.

“Good! Have you ever used one of these,” he asked, producing a breathalyzer.

“No, sir!”

“Well, you just blow into the tube like you were blowing up a balloon, until I tell you to stop.”

I did and he did.

“Very good. Now I’ll just enter this into the computer so I can show I talked with you.” With that, he walked back to his car. Roslyn’s blood pressure was quickly falling back into the normal range.

He came back and handed back my license.

“Was this just a random stop?” I asked.

“Well, we saw your car had rental car plates. Drug smugglers often use rental cars between Melbourne and Adelaide ‘cause they think they’re less conspicuous.”

“And are there really people who’ve been drinking at 9:45 in the morning?” Roslyn wanted to know.

“Usually it’s when they’ve had a big night,” he answered, implying some drivers who’d been out late drinking might still be over the legal limit at 9:45 a.m. Constable Ryan wished us well and we were on our way.

David, who had given us the shortcut to the main highway, had also warned us the drive to Adelaide was one of the most boring he had ever driven. He wasn’t exaggerating. Miles of nothing but flat beige fields and the occasional tree, reminiscent of the oppressive monotony drivers must endure on I-70 from central Missouri to western Kansas, I-16 from Macon to Savannah, or anywhere on road in Indiana.

About three hours into our drive, we crossed the state line between Victoria and South Australia. Our time changed, moving not a full hour, but just a half-hour earlier. Why a half-hour? When Australia originally adopted time zones, South Australia, in the Central Time zone, was an hour behind the east. But in 1899, Central Time was moved to only half-hour behind the East, after lobbying by businesses who wanted to be closer to Melbourne time and cricketers and footballers who wanted more daylight to practice in the evenings. The common international practice of setting one-hour intervals between adjacent time zones.? Fuggettaboutit. Attempts to correct these oddities in 1986 and 1994 were rejected.

We made it to our hotel in Adelaide without further incident. We walked around to stretch and enjoy the nice weather, had a very nice meal at a nearby Italian restaurant, and repaired to our hotel for the evening.

We did see on a local newscast a report on the Super Bowl, which had begun from 7:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m., depending on where in Australia you are. . As Senior Constable Ryan indicated, at least some Australians have at least a passing interest in the game. Which is just a little more than Roslyn and I had in the game.

In the Grampians

We wanted to get an early start today in order to beat the heat, but we weren’t in any big rush when we got up. Our cabin has a kitchenette. We had gone to the grocery store for some milk and a box of Raisin Bran, which is sold here as Sultana Bran. I had poured myself a bowl and took it to the front porch of our cabin to eat breakfast in the very pleasant morning air.

I was chomping away when suddenly, I had company. My uninvited guest was hanging off the front of the roof, and looking at me and my breakfast.

That’s a sulphur-crested cockatoo, and they’re as common in these parts as starlings, blackbirds and sparrows are where you live. This one was just a few feet away, which is as close as it got to me and my Sultana Bran.

After breakfast, we drove up to our first hike, McKenzie Falls. It took maybe a half-hour to get to the car park. Before starting out, Roslyn stopped in at the restroom near the trail head. There was some minor commotion coming from the ladies room, on account of this:

To say Roslyn doesn’t like spiders is a bit of an understatement, so props to her for getting this picture!

The hike to McKenzie Falls involves going down about 400 very steep and deep stairs. The stairs take you right to the base of the falls.

Of course, once you’re at the bottom, you have to get back to the top. Those 400 steep and deep steps are no bargain. The app on Roslyn’s phone that counts steps and things like that told us after we got to the top and we had climbed 15 flights of stairs. The sun was up now,the temperature had climbed to the low 90’s.

Still, your intrepid explorers had the wherewithal to take on another of the park’s most popular hikes, to a spot called The Balconies. We made the short drive to the parking area, and then the one kilometer walk on level ground to an interesting rock formation.

Those fellows you see at the edge of The Balconies aren’t supposed to be there. They climbed a fence and walked through brush to get there. If a rock broke off or one of them slipped, it would have taken a helicopter and some rappellers to recover the body. But, hey, why not?

When we got back to the car, the digital readout on the dashboard informed us it was 37 degrees. While I was doing the Celsius-to-Fahrenheit conversion in my head, Roslyn said, “37C is 98.6! I remember that from nursing school!” We drove back into Halls Gap, and had lunch and ice cream. Then back to the cabin for rest.

A few hours later, Roslyn looked out or front door to see

A mom and her joey. Pretty darn cute. We had dinner at a restaurant a short drive from here. We had a window table, with a view of a field. In the field were maybe 100 kangaroos, munching on grass, drinking from a stream, hopping around as kangaroos do. Then a large flock on cockatoos flew across the sky, on their way to roost for the night. Toto, we are not in Kansas.

I’m sorry to be leaving the Grampians so soon. But that’s been true of most of the places we’ve visited so far. Tomorrow is a travel day; we make the six-hour drive to Adelaide. Maybe we’ll be able to find a radio station here carrying the Super Bowl (it starts at 10:30 a.m. local time). Maybe not.

Wildlife

Our day began with a short drive from Port Fairy to the Tower Hill Nature Reserve. It’s an area formed about 32,000 years ago by volcanic activity. The volcanoes are long dead, but the area now teems with life., including koalas. I got a few very nice shots of some colorful birds, but you’ll have to wait until I get home and add them to my website (www.darrylkonterphoto.com) to see them. I will show you a picture of a very large, but not very colorful bird we saw.

This is an emu, the largest bird native to Australia and second in height only to the ostrich. They’re found throughout the country. He or she wasn’t afraid of us, but neither was he or she interested in getting close. Fine with us. I don’t want to upset anything that’s bigger than me.

We were walking a trail there when Roslyn saw an iPhone on the ground. She picked it up and turned it in at the visitor’s center. A few minutes later, it’s owner called asking about it. Roslyn’s good deed for the day.

We left Tower Hill to make the roughly 90 minute drive north to Halls Gap, a town situated in the heart of Grampians National Park. The village we left this morning, Port Fairy, is the closest city of any size to Halls Gap. We are out among nature. Our lodging is a nice little cabin. I’m delighted to inform you that it has air conditioning; delighted because it was 93 today and will be over 100 tomorrow. We plan to get our hiking in early!

Roslyn had laid down for a little nap and I was checking out my photos from this morning when I looked out our front door and saw this:

Roslyn had fallen asleep for a nap, but I didn’tthink she’dmind me waking her to see this kangaroo, 30 feet from our front door, munching on grass without a care in the world. He stayed there more than an hour, then went hopping away.

For dinner tonight, kangaroo was on the menu at our restaurant. I ordered it. Very lean meat. Not bad.

The 12 Apostles and The Shot of the Day

We packed up last night so that we could hit the road right after breakfast. Our goal was to make the roughly 90 minute drive to the 12 Apostles site before all the tour buses got there. We arrived about 10:15 and although people were already there, it wasn’t yet crowded.

photo credit: Roslyn Konter

This collection of limestone stacks up to 150 feet high was formed by erosion. The erosion that formed the 12 Apostles has also claimed four of them; there are now only eight apostles remaining. But it remains one of the most popular tourist attractions in Australia. Get there after about 11 a.m. on any given day during the Australian summer, and you’ll find out the hard way just how popular.

While I took a long flight of stairs down to the beach to get a few shots from a different angle, Roslyn stayed up top, and wound up getting the shot of the day.

Photo credit: Roslyn Konter

Feast your eyes on the Superb Fairy Wren. There are about a half-dozen birds here classified as fairy wrens. One is named the Splendid Fairy Wren. There are also Lovely and Red-winged Fairy Wrens.

After leaving the 12 Apostles, we stopped briefly at another seaside spot along the Great Ocean Road, the Loch Ard Gorge. Just another stunningly beautiful site; this one named for the ship that wrecked on the reef nearby.

We continued on our way toward our destination for the night, Port Fairy. On the way, we came to the end of the Great Ocean Road. Back on the highway, we made good time to Port Fairy. The welcome sign wants every passing motorist to know this coastal village of about 4,000 to be the most livable city in Australia. I’m in no position to dispute that claim. It is, indeed, quaint and charming, filled with nice restaurants and artists’ shops. The nice lady who operates our hotel recommended several dinner choices. We chose Coffin Sally, a pizza joint. I had the buffalo mozzarella with cherry tomatoes and basil. Roslyn had the Too Much Spinach, which really had just the right amount of spinach, along with lemon. Both were delicious.

The weather has been cool the last two days; highs in the 60’s, with a steady 25 mph wind that made it feel colder. That ends tomorrow, when we travel about an hour and a half north of here to Hall’s Gap. The high is forecast in the mid-90’s tomorrow and 100 for Sunday.