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 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 an Australian
celebrity... our good friend, Nicole Kidman.

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

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

How can anyone not fall in love with a koala?

A Wallaby.

A Cassowary, similar to an Emu.

We found this wild Emu in a reserve we visited.

We went kangaroo hunting and managed
to run into quite a few of them roaming 
around.  How fun!

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! 

Rick feeling a little brave!

This was the biggest penguin I've ever seen

The name of this town in Tasmania was "Penguin"

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 just out in the wild. 
This penguin is almost extinct and hard to find.

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...

Heading out on a dolphin search... Absolutely
love love love dolphins!

Sorry no good pictures of dolphins, but we did
spot some which made the trip worthwhile and fun

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 the sheep. Quite fascinating!

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

These dogs are very clever.

The skyline of Melbourne, a very nice city

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

Rick can't resist a picture op!

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.

Rick can't pass by something to climb up,either!

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 New Zealand
Maori family singing & dancing together.

Part of the dance is putting on their
most scary warrior like face.  Their eyes
tell so much of the story.

They are pretty good with the Poi Balls

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

Do I stick out like a sore thumb?

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...

Another interesting photo op for Rick!

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 we finally reached the point
where we 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
northern 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 wherever we looked.

We saw dozens of different light
houses on several beaches.

Rick has become a huge Rugby fan since living
in Fiji, so he felt 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...

Rick purchased an "All Blacks" shirt to keep
as a souvenir of the sport of Rugby. It will
go nice with his Fiji Rugby shirt.

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 

and get back to work, finishing off here in Fiji with a bang!  Two 

weeks before heading back to Canada!!