Dear Loyal Readers:
Yes, this will be the final edition for this trip. Do not despair; we will travel again and there will be more reports. Those few among you who I have not heard from at all will be removed from “the list” unless you tell me not to.
When I left you last, we were on our way to Melbourne to visit my cousin Ben. He is my only first cousin; my dad and his mom were brother and sister. Ben is 10 years older than I am (I learnt on this trip that his mom was 7 years older than my dad) and he was born in Berlin. At age 4 he and his mother emigrated to Chile, while his father wound up in Australia. At age 9 his mother passed away and he was placed on a steamer ship to Australia to his father; he was like the mascot of the ship. He grew up in Australia and that’s what he considers himself. He was a chemical engineer by trade; worked for Exxon and a few other companies. He spent time living in Hong Kong and Singapore. While in Singapore his wife started developing the symptoms of Alzheimer’s. In 1992 (he was 57; Diana was probably 55) they returned to Australia. Ben retired in order to take care of Diana which he did for the next 9 years until she passed away. In the process he became involved with the Carers (read: Care givers in the US) organization. As a result, he ultimately became the president of the national organization as well as his state (Victoria) organization. In fact, the day before we arrived he had been on TV discussing a carer issue; he showed us the tape. He is an extremely bright and caring individual.
While Ben has been to the US several times (initially on business and then for pleasure), I had never met the rest of the family; I did meet Diana on one of the trips long ago. He has a daughter and 2 sons; there are 10 grandchildren ranging in age from 16 down to 2.
As you might suspect, our time in Melbourne was quite different from the rest of the trip due to all of the family. We stayed at Ben’s home; so nice to be in someone’s home after all those hotel rooms (as luxurious as most of them were!) And yes, we had access to a washing machine again. We arrived in Melbourne on Sunday afternoon. After depositing all our luggage, he took us to meet a cousin of his (who I am not related to) but it was delightful to meet her and her husband. From there we went to his daughter’s house. It was the 10th birthday of her oldest child; luckily I knew this and had brought along a present! So in one fell swoop we got to meet Thea (Ben’s daughter), her partner Michael and their 3 children as well as Simon (one of Ben’s sons), his girlfriend, his 3 children, his ex-wife, her new husband and their 2 children!! A bit unusual to be sure! In addition, Michael’s family was there as well. There were lively conversations and it was fun indeed.
Paul (Ben’s other son) and his wife, their 2 children, her daughter and his daughter (got all that?) were not there because they had gone away for the holiday weekend. We met all of them on Wednesday morning when they came for breakfast.
I left our Melbourne experience in Ben’s capable hands. I know most of you find it hard to believe that I could give up this control but I did! On Monday Ben took us for an all day ride along the Great Ocean Road which is south of Melbourne. When you watch the Australian Open, they always pan on this road and I’ve wanted to go there for a long time. Along the way we saw some surfers and wonderful scenery. On the way back Ben took an in-land route so we could see other sights.
On the next day Ben took us north of Melbourne. We drove to, through and to the top of the Dandenong Range of mountains; lovely scenery. From there he took us to the Healesville sanctuary. We saw emus, ibis, koalas, kangaroos, platypus, blue tongued lizards, wallabys, wombats, cockatoos and dingoes. I found it interesting that both he and Alison and Walter (remember that far back?) wanted us to see their indigenous animals.
We didn’t get to Melbourne itself until Wednesday (after breakfast with the family). Since we were flying out later in the day, we didn’t have much time. Melbourne is a large city; Ben basically drove us around it so we could get a flavor of it. We did stop in one museum to see some Australian art.
On Tuesday evening Ben took us to Jacques Reymond; considered Melbourne’s best restaurant. It was in a gorgeous old mansion and was lovely indeed. They only serve appetizer size portions (which are called entrees in Australia and New Zealand for that matter). The food was terrific. I had a prawn dish and a beef filet dish and 4 types of cheese for dessert. The wine was a 1999 cabernet sauvignon from the Yarra Valley (which is near Melbourne; we drove through it on the way to Healesville); it was delicious. This was our last “major” dinner on this trip and definitely a high note to end on.
Last night we arrived back in Sydney. Since we flew to Australia on frequent flyer miles, we had to go in and out of Sydney. Today we spent in the Blue Mountains. The blue sheen on the Blue Mountains is caused by the evaporation of oil from the dense eucalyptus forest. This disperses light in the blue colors of the spectrum, a phenomenon known as Rayleigh scattering. (Got that? Hope I’ve been educating some of you through these travel reports!) It was beautiful scenery and a wonderful way to spend our last day in Australia. As beautiful as they were, however, I must admit that the most beautiful scenery we saw on this trip was on the South Island of New Zealand.
As we drove through the Blue Mountains, we saw various waterfalls and incredible look-out points. The highlight of the Blue Mountains are 3 soaring sandstone pillars called The Three Sisters. The area was once a seabed that rose over a long period and subsequently eroded, leaving behind tall formations of sedimentary rock. I’ve attached a photo that shows The 3 Sisters as well as the blue of the mountains behind them.
From there we took a ride in a scenic cable car that went over a gorge with an 1100 foot drop below. It was majestic. The cable car had a glass bottom so you could look straight down into the gorge which was an interesting phenomenon.
From the Blue Mountains we decided to drive to Bondi (pronounced Bon-dye) Beach which we hadn’t gotten to on our initial foray into Sydney. There were lots of surfers out and it was fun to see. We fell into a lovely little trattoria for our last meal in Australia. It was a great end to a perfect day and trip.
Tomorrow morning (actually, I have to get up in a few hours!) we fly to Japan. We’ll be spending 22 hours in Narita (outside Tokyo; where the airport is); it’s a forced lay-over; we’ll be going to a Buddhist Temple that I read about before continuing our trek home.
In summary, I’d just like to say that this was really wonderful trip. We especially liked the variety of what we saw and did. We visited both cities and countryside. We went to museums and historical homes as well as wineries and saw incredibly beautiful scenery. We went to 2 different countries. We discovered that while we liked both the Aussies and the Kiwis, they don’t particularly care for each other. We had wonderful food throughout. We had very good touring weather (with 2 major exceptions: the wind over Milford Sound and the clouds over Ayers Rock).
On one level, the trip felt a little superficial since we covered such a huge amount of land (and air!) and sometimes it felt like “if it’s Tuesday, it must be Belgium”. But we did get a good taste (pun intended) of everything. We only hit the highlights of each country but we did want to see as much as we could in the 4 weeks we had and that we certainly did). On our first trip to Europe (in 1969 !) we also covered a huge amount; since then we’ve learned to concentrate on one area at a time. Perhaps if we come back to this part of the world, we’ll do that here next time. Ben has already e.mailed me about “my next trip back”. Seeing people we know in these countries was a added treat (as well as meeting family members I hadn’t met before.)
I hope all of you have enjoyed traveling along with us. I’ve enjoyed sharing my experiences with you. Next Haber Travel Report will emanate from Los Angeles the end of April; the hearing Marty was scheduled to do there last October will now actually happen next month (or so they say!)
For those of you who are joining us for brunch at our apartment on April 6th, I’m sure you’ll get to hear Marty’s version of this trip. I look forward to seeing each of you.
Bev: can’t wait to see you on Wednesday afternoon.
Diane: looking forward to eating at Bar Boulud on the 11th.
Doug and Fawn: see you on the 12th; of course, I’m looking forward to seeing both of you!
To the rest of you: I’m sure we’ll catch up somewhere soon.
Much love,
The Adventurer, Reporter and Photographer,
Irene
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