New Zealand and Australia
Spiro returned home to Hong Kong after his first semester at Indiana University and we all took a trip for Christmas and New Years to New Zealand and Australia. New Zealand is about an 11 hour flight from Hong Kong. We switched planes in Auckland and arrived in Wellington around dinnertime.
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| Peter, Stella and Spiro outside the Wellington Train Station. |
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| Stella and Spiro in downtown Wellington. |
Wellington is the capital city of New Zealand. It is on the southeastern end of the north Island. Wellington is the second largest city in New Zealand, having a population of about 400,000. We were all exhausted after our long flight and after dinner went straight to bed. Unfortunately, Spiro must have been the most tired, because he snored so loud the rest of us couldn’t sleep at all.
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| Peter taking a little rest on the train. |
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| New Zealand countryside from moving train. |
Spiro woke up in the morning (the rest of us had been awake all night) and we boarded a train heading north. The train was very comfortable. It was narrow, with big windows, so every seat had a nice view. The rear car was open, so if you wanted some fresh air you could walk back there. We played cards and viewed the beautiful New Zealand countryside for about 6 hours. Lots of sheep; not too many people. New Zealand’s land area is a little bigger than the UK, but has 4.5 million inhabitants versus 64 million in the UK.
We disembarked in Hamilton, a city less than half the size of Wellington but still the fourth largest in New Zealand. Hamilton is located on the eastern side of the north island. It was Christmas Eve. There was not much to do in Hamilton, especially on Christmas Eve, so we had dinner, walked around and went to sleep.
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| The Athanas family on Christmas Day after experiencing the glow worms in the Waitomo cave |
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| Waitomo, New Zealand |
On Christmas day, Stella and Peter slept until noon. Spiro and Joe got up early and walked around town. Needless to say, there was not a lot to do in Hamilton on Christmas day. However, Spiro and Joe discovered that there was a cave in Waitomo, about one hour south, that was open on Christmas, but closed early in the afternoon. As soon as Stella and Peter woke up, we all jumped in the car and headed to Waitomo. It was probably a bit rushed for Christmas morning/afternoon. In any event, we arrived in Waitomo and descended into a cave. At the bottom of the cave, we boarded a small boat and headed down an underground river. The cave walls were lit up with a million little glowing things that looked like stars. The stars were actually glow worms. Worms that glow in the dark to attract other insects (i.e., food). The glow worms can only be found one place on earth and we were there. After our glow worm adventure, we climbed up a hill and called our family back in the U.S. We then drove back and had a Christmas buffet.
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| Lamb chops are a typical pub food in New Zealand. |
The next day everything in Hamilton remained closed for Boxing day. Boxing day is the day after Christmas. It got its name because it was the day when servants were given a Christmas box containing money or presents. We relaxed and walked around. In the evening, we found a nice pub and had a delicious meal.
From Hamilton, we drove to Rotorua, a town of 60,000 souls in the middle of the North island of New Zealand. Rotorua has a giant lake in the center, formed by a volcano. Thus, you could say that we slept on a volcano.
From Rotorua, we drove about three hours to Napier, which is on the western coast of New Zealand. The drive through the mountains to Napier is one of the most beautiful drives in the world.
Napier is a city destroyed by an earthquake in 1931. The only buildings left standing after the earthquake and subsequent fires, were buildings made of concrete. So, when they rebuilt the town, they did the whole thing in concrete art-deco style, because it would be less likely to be destroyed in a future earthquake.
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| The Athanas family in Napier, New Zealand. |
Upon our arrival in Napier, we took a cruise in a classic car to a giant corrugated metal building in the middle of nowhere. There, an elderly man had set about collecting cars for 30 years or so and had collected over 100, mostly of British design. We wandered around admiring the cars and then headed back to town. Napier is the heart of New Zealand wine country, so for dinner we of course went to an Irish Pub and drank beer. It is a wonderful thing that Irish culture has spread so thoroughly throughout the world.
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| Sydney Opera House |
After Napier, we flew to Sydney, Australia. In Sydney, we climbed to the top of the iconic Harbour Bridge, 440 feet above the water, we had an awesome New Years’ Eve dinner at Rockpool, a fabulous restaurant we recommend highly, we checked out the art museum, we toured the architectural wonder Sydney Opera House, and we took a ferry to the beach. We walked along world famous Bondi beach for a long while. It was a warm day and a long walk. When it was over, we took a bus back to the ferry, but ran into a pub on the beach on the way and spent a few hours there relaxing.
After a few days in Sydney, we headed to Launceston, Tasmania. Tasmania is even more sparsely populated than New Zealand. The first afternoon, we found a pub by the river with a pool table and played some pool. We also checked out a little car museum not far from our hotel. In the evening, we walked around until we finally found, you guessed it, an Irish pub! The next morning, the boys went zip-lining. Peter said the zip-line track inTasmania was "fantastic" and mocked Stella and Joe for golfing instead of zip-lining. Stella and Joe drove an hour north to play golf at Barnbougle, another one of the top golf courses in the world. The wind off the ocean was so strong that some holes required five extra clubs and the bunkers were 20 feet deep, but the course was spectacular and we had a nice time. The boys also enjoyed their day, zipping from tree top to tree top. That evening, we all met up and returned to the Irish pub for our final meal of the trip.
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| Barnbougle Golf Club |
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| The Athanas family climbing the Harbour Bridge in Sydney. |
