Australia & New Zealand

It's been ages since I was last on here, and I have no idea how the time got away from me.  It seems that every time I think about writing something down, I get carried away on something new and forget about writing on this blog.  Anyhow, after we finished our Alaska Cruise trip, we decided to set sail on another cruise in October 2014, but saw the air flights were going to cost an arm and a leg, so decided to use our air miles getting us to Australia and getting us back from New Zealand.  All I can say is "What an experience"!!!

Our flights to and from Australia/New Zealand were to die for as we flew business class both ways.  I have never been pampered sooooo much!!  Our seats were very luxurious recliners that completely went flat for a very comfortable sleep.  Quantas Airlines even provided a quilted pad for extra comfort.  We flew a Quantas 747 to Australia and a Fiji Airlines Air Bus back to the U.S.  Both airlines were fantastic and the seats were so comfortable, we had no feeling of being on a plane for 14 plus hours each way.

On Oct 13, we flew into Brisbane (via Phoenix & Los Angeles) and after a short layover flew into Cairns where we stayed for 6 days.  Because of crossing the date line, we lost a day so were in Cairns October 15-21.  We had a great time playing on the Great Barrier Reef, touring the quaint town of Kuranda (via skyrail over the rain forest), spending a day at a Crocodile Preserve where Ken got to feed a Croc, and visiting an Aboriginal Cultural Center……even learned how to blow on a Didgeridoo, but couldn’t master playing it. 

On Oct 21, we flew to Sydney and toured the city before boarding our Holland America ship on Oct 24.  Sydney is very large city with some beautiful harbors.  We mostly toured the city via a Hop on Hop off bus and got our bearings before visiting the Toranga Zoo (across the bay) where we saw Kangaroos, Koalas, Wambats, Cassowarys, and the so very mean (but cute) Tasman Devil.  Also saw the usual animals, birds, and reptiles that are in most zoos, but the Taz and the Koalas were our favorite.

Our big adventure was 14 days on the Holland America ship “the Ms Oosterdam (Oct 24-Nov 7).  We sailed out of Sydney on the Tasman Sea to Melbourne, where we were able to tour the city and beaches on another Hop on Hop off bus.  With only one day there, it was the only way to really see the city.

Our next stops were to be Hobart and Milford Sound, but as we were leaving Melbourne, the Captain said gale force winds (upwards of 100mph plus) and high seas (50 feet plus swells) were predicted, and he didn’t want to put the ship (and passengers) in danger, so he planned to out run the storm and head for the Cook Strait that goes between the north and south New Zealand Islands…. We were at sea (Tasman Sea) for 2 ½ days and stayed on the edge of the advancing storm.  Even being ahead of the storm, there were still some very rough and windy (75 mph winds) seas.  In fact, one day and night the Promenade Deck was closed off because it was too dangerous to be out there.  We had a Verandah room on deck 6 (Upper Promenade) and did step out a few times, but it was just too windy to spend any time out there.  Once we were on the Pacific Ocean side of New Zealand, the seas were much better…..still windy in many ports, but nothing like what we experenced at sea...

We stopped at 6 ports before ending our cruise on November 7 in Auckland, New Zealand.  We toured the Cadbury Chocolate Factory in Dunedin, took a jet boat ride and 8 wheeler high country ride in Akaroa, and saw the Glow Worm Cave (and the worms) and Kiwi Birds in the Kiwi House while in Tauranga (Rotorua).  In Napier, we visited a Maori Village to learn of their history and culture.

Once in Auckland, we extended our stay for two more days and had fun seeing the sights of the city.  We saw hundreds of Penguins at the local sea aquarium and even watched the Stingray(s) being fed.

Just around the corner from our hotel was the Sky Tower of Auckland.  The tower stands over 1,000 feet tall with a viewing platform at 770 feet.  There is also a revolving restaurant on one level and a bungee jumping platform on another level (no, we didn’t jump).  It took every bit of my courage just to get up to the viewing platform to look at the city below.  It was quite fantastic, but I was so glad when I was back down and on solid ground.

We left Auckland on Sunday, Nov 9 via Fiji Air and flew through the night to Los Angeles where we actually landed on Sunday, Nov 9 before we left Auckland (now that is a very strange feeling).  In reality, we had two Sundays that day.  Instead of flying back to Phoenix where our coach was at, we flew into Portland where our kids picked us up and we spent two weeks at home in Salem before driving our Grand Cherokee Jeep back to Arizona.

We had a grand time and are now looking at doing another cruise in 2016….Destination TBA.

September, October, and November

We spent Sept 3-11 in Yakutat, AK fishing this year.  The weather was horrid, but we caught a lot of fish.  It was raining when we landed and it was raining when we left.  There was only one day we saw blue skies.  The rest of the time was wind and lots of rain….in fact the back of the lodge had standing water most of the time we were there.  The weather was so bad that a barge heading for Yakutat had to be turned around because of rough seas.  However, we were out every day (thank goodness we have great rain gear) and caught a lot of fish.  The fish were smaller this year, but more abundant.  We came home with four full boxes of Salmon Filets (about 175 pounds).  Still had great fun, and yes, we are already booked for next year.

One week after we got home from Alaska, we took our coach in for its annual service and maintenance check (Sept 19) then we spent the next four days (19-23) camping at South Beach State Park in Newport, Oregon.  Our friends Rod & Lynda joined us for a fun weekend.  The weather was fairly decent, and we had one nice day where we walked from our campsite to the beach and back.  We even found a geocache during that walk.  It was wonderful to spend a lot of our time sitting around the campfire and visiting.  Of course, we had to have dinner in town several times and even drove up to Lincoln City to do some shopping at the Outlet Stores.

Once we got back to Salem, we spent many days getting the coach cleaned out and repacked with what we would need in Arizona.  Our plans were to head to Arizona on Oct 11, but we still had too much to do, so put it off till Oct 13.  Good thing we did because the refrigerator in the coach suddenly quit working.  We have a neighbor that is a Norcold Rep, so we called him and he discovered the cooling unit died.  There was coolant everywhere (ugly).  Thankfully, it happened while we were home and not on the road somewhere.  Once again we were fortunate to find a place that we could take it in and get it fixed.  The coach was taken in on Oct 15 and was scheduled to be finished on Oct 17 late afternoon.  Needless-to-say, everything we took out of coach had to be put back in, so the plan to leave Salem for Arizona was delayed until Oct 19.

Saturday, Oct 19, we left Salem and drove south to highway 58 where we had a colorful drive across the Willamette Pass into Central Oregon.  It was so nice to have no rain or snow!  We crossed into California and made our way through Alturas and ended our drive at a little town called Likely on highway 395.  There we stayed the night in a large open parking lot next to the volunteer fire department’s building.

The next morning (Sunday) we had an uneventful drive through Reno, Fernley, and Fallon to a rest area just north of Tonopah, Nevada.  This is a nice place to stop and spend the night because they don’t allow any large trucks to pull in there.  We arrived early enough to spend some time out in the sun having a nice glass of wine.  Up to this point, we had no problems and all was going well.

Monday, we were up early and prepared for the drive to Laughlin, Nevada.  We made it through Las Vegas with no problems and ended our day at the Avi Casino and RV Park just south of Laughlin.  Since we got there early enough, we got cleaned up and walked over to the casino for a wonderful dinner and drinks.   Again, this was another wonderful day with an easy drive.

Tuesday, Oct 22, we were up early and headed into Arizona.  Our drive south was getting warmer as we got closer to our destination.  We pulled into Queen Valley RV Resort about 2 pm and quickly got set up and turned on the AC because the temperature was in the 90s.  Not long after we got set up, Ken noticed a propane smell and discovered the regulator was leaking a little (not good).  He quickly turned off the gas and decided we would have to have the regulator replaced again (this has happened before). 

The next day (Wednesday the 23rd) Ken noticed the inside of the refrigerator was in the 50s.  It was another hot day (90-95) and the sun was beating on that side of the coach, so we pulled the slider awning out to shade it, but the temperature didn’t go down.  Ken then opened up the outside panels and noticed the fans weren’t working….. That really wasn’t good because we just spent $2,300 to have the whole cooling unit replaced.  Thankfully, we have an extra freezer in our shed, so we pulled stuff out of the coach freezer and put it in the shed’s freezer.  We weren’t worried about stuff in the fridge because there really wasn’t much in there that would spoil.  The temperature did go down after the sun set, but not to where it should be.  The next morning (Thurs), we called Norcold and they gave us a name of someone in Apache Junction who could work on our fridge.  We then called Apache Junction RV Sales & Service and were told they could come out, but to run a couple tests first.  We ran the tests, which took 4 hours, then called them back with the results.  They then said they could come out the next day (Friday), but we would have to pay the travel cost ($50) and the diagnosis cost ($94 an hour) because Norcold would only pay the warranty on the cooling unit IF it was bad.  We had no problem with that because it would be more trouble to pull up stakes and drive the coach all the way into Apache Junction (24 miles one way).

Friday was another hot day (88) and with the fans not working on the fridge, the inside temp never got below 50.  Freezer was barely freezing, but that was not acceptable.  We were thrilled when Tom of AJ RV Service showed up and took one look at the unit and said Roberson RV Service wired the fans wrong.  Tom had the fan wires fixed and working in less than five minutes (whew).  Tom also noticed that with our fridge on the slider we have two outside vents.  Well, the fans are at the lower portion of the unit and the upper part of the unit should have a baffle to move the air into the cooling unit (it didn’t)……SO, he quickly got one made and installed (yay).  Tom then looked at our propane regulator and replaced that ($23).  He had everything back to normal in just a bit over an hour.  We were thrilled to not have anything more serious wrong.  Total cost of the repair was $178.  What a relief!!!

We have now been in Queen Valley almost 3 weeks and have seen many residents coming back.  We had our first official coffee social on Nov 4 and enjoyed seeing so many of our friends.  The weather has been fantastic with only a few days in the 90s with the rest in the 70s & 80s.  The evenings have been wonderfully cool.  Yes, we did have one night of rain, but it passed through quickly and didn’t leave too much of a mess behind.  There wasn’t much dust in the air, so didn’t have the mud residue we normally get after a rain (yay).

Soon, it will be time for us to fly home to Oregon and spend the Christmas Season with our family.  We fly on December 9 and will be driving our Grand Cherokee back to Arizona around December 27.  We have a couple stops while driving back to Arizona, so don’t plan on being back till after the first of the New Year.  Until then, hope all have a wonderful Thanks giving, Christmas, and New Year.

Alaska Fun

We finally had the chance to visit parts of Alaska that we hadn’t visited before!

On July 21, we boarded Alaska Air in Portland, OR and flew to Vancouver BC, Canada to begin our experience on water and land.  Our trip was for 7 days on water, sailing through the Inlet Passage of AK on Holland America’s "ms Zaandam" and 7 days on land (via bus and rail) ending in Fairbanks.

This is our boarding picture.  Note, this is after we were up from 4:30 am, had a two plus hours flight from Portland toVancouver B.C., then a 45 minute bus ride (via Holland America Lines Shuttle) to where the ship was docked.  We were pretty tired and quite disheveled when we boarded the ship at Noon. (sigh)

We set sail from Vancouver the evening of July 21 and spent that night plus the next day at sea before docking in Ketchikan at 6 am on July 23. The pictures below are our ship and our docking site.

  

It was overcast with misty showers that turned to a hard rain later in the day, but we had fun exploring Ketchikan and even going out on the “Misty Fjords Cruise & Floatplane Adventure” excursion.  The excursion was to take us to the Fjords then take a float plane back to Ketchikan, but it was way too overcast for the float plane to fly, so we just did the catamaran portion of the trip.  Scenery was shrouded in fog and very pretty!  This picture is just one view of the many waterfalls we saw in a secluded cove of Misty Fjords.

We left Ketchikan’s port at 2:30 pm and sailed through the night docking in Juneau on the 24th at 8 am. Again, we had a very foggy, overcast morning as we walked around town checking out all the souvenier shops and even finding a geocache on top of a parking garage...Yes, we brought our GPS along, but didn't get that many chances to look for caches.  This is a picture of our ship docked near where all the passengers catch buses for local tours.

We had time before our afternoon excursion, so we stopped at the famous Red Dog Saloon for lunch and a beer.  It was extremely crowded, but we had lots of fun there.

  

After lunch, we were back at the dock to catch one of the many buses that would take us out on a Whale Quest and Mendenhall Glacier tour.  What fun!!  The weather had cleared up by the time we were back out to sea on a jet powered catamaran where we were rewarded with Orcas, Humpbacks, Seals, Sea Lions, and hundreds of birds.  What a sight it was to watch the Orcas play, but watching the Humpbacks "Bubble Feeding" was an extra treat.  Taking pictures of these events was tough, but Ken did get the following picture of a Humpback "breaching."  We were watching these Whales for nearly an hour, and Ken got lots more pictures, but this is really the best one!

Once we were back ashore from the water portion of our excursion, we were taken by bus to the Mendenhall Glacier Visitor Center.  There, we could take a walk down to Nugget Falls and get some up close and personal pictures of the glacier.  All I can say about that experience was it was just awesome!  The picture I am posting is from the viewing platform at the visitor center, but Ken & I took many, many more.

Back at the ship, we pulled away from dock at 9:30 pm and again spent the night at sea and ended up docking in Skagway at 5:30 am on the 25th.  Skagway was a beautiful 64 degrees and sunny.

We walked around town and found a geocache at the information center in town then later in the morning, we rode the White Pass Railroad up to the White Pass Summit.  It was beautiful with lots of great scenes of the mountains.  We even saw parts of the old trail the “stampeders” used to get through the pass in the dead of winter.  I cannot imagine how horrid that must have been.  Below is a picture of the town and our train heading up the pass.

  

From Skagway, we were once again at sea and spent the night sailing, then all day the 26th was spent in Glacier Bay National Park where we picked up some “rangers” who spent the day talking about and showing us neat sights in the bay.  Incredible!!  After dropping off the rangers about 5 pm, we were once again off to sea.  This shot of Margerie Glacier (near the upper point of Glacier Bay) is from our Lido Deck on the ship.  It was such an awesome sight that we took a lot of pictures of this glacier.

On July 28, we docked in Seward at 6 am.  This was where we left the ship (about 10 am) and set off on a Kenai Fjords tour.  Again, we were out on another jet powered boat and saw many glaciers and more whales.  After the tour, we were taken by bus to our hotel for the night.  I must say at this point we were very impressed with the promptness and professional service we had from every Holland America Representative.  We were at this point done with the "water" portion of our cruise, so we weren't too sure how things were going to go on our land portion.  We were NOT disappointed.

We had the morning of the 29th at leisure, then in the afternoon, we were picked up and bussed to Anchorage where we were to spend the night.  We made it to Anchorage and our hotel (Westmark) about 5:30 pm.  It was still early, so had a quick dinner at a local pub and walked a bit in a park near our hotel before calling it an early evening.

The next morning (early) we were picked up and shuttled to the Alaska Rail Road Depot where we got on a wonderful domed Holland America Line Rail Car for Denali National Park.  Traveling with us was a Holland America Lines (HAL) Rep who took wonderful care of us.  He (Scott) had all our room keys, tour info, etc. all arranged prior to our arriving our destinations.  I forgot to say that we didn't have to worry about our bags either.  After we got off the ship, our bags were picked up at each point along the way and transfered separately to our next destination.  All we needed to worry about was our small carry on's, cameras, meds, and small personal stuff.  We were never in want for anything!!  This is our rail car.  Very nice!!

It was an 8 hour ride to Denali, but we were served breakfast and lunch on board (lower section of car) and of course, there was a bartender on board to take care of all our "liquid" needs.  As you can see in the picture above, the rail car has an open platform in the back where people could ride and get some great pictures.  After we made it to Denali, we were picked up and taken to the McKinnley Chalets where we spent two nights.

In Denali, we had time to take a bus tour back into the Tundra Wilderness and see the wildlife and "The Mountain."  Yes, it was clear and we did see Denali (Mt McKinnley).  We also saw 6 Grizzly Bears, 2 Moose, a herd of Caribou, and many different birds.  We were on a Blue Bird Bus, but we had lots of stops along the way and plenty of time to enjoy the surroundings.

After Denali, we again got on the Alaska Rail Road in a HAL car and headed for Fairbanks.  In Fairbanks, we were signed up for a Gold Dredge Tour and a Stern Wheeler trip up the Chena River.  This portion of the rail trip was 4 hours, so we had a nice afternoon to enjoy before calling it a day.  Speaking of day, it was still daylight out at 11:30 at night.  Thank goodness, the hotel had darkening shades or we never would have gotten any sleep.  This is our train arriving at the station in Denali.

The morning of Aug 2, we were off to see Gold Dredge #8 and get some experience on panning for gold. Ken and I got a few flakes ($21 worth), but the couple that was traveling with us ended up with $45 worth of flakes....(they were the big winners).  Yes, here is Ken panning for his $13 worth of flakes (I got $8).

While at Gold Dredge #8, we got to see the pipe line and hear a long story about it and how it works (impressive).

After the gold and pipe line experience, we were then bussed to the Discovery Stern Wheeler II where we floated up and down the Chena River.  This river flows through Fairbanks and in the winter is frozen solid, so they use "Ice" bridges to cross it.  Today, it was a very hot 87 degree day, so no ice in sight.  We got to see an Athabaskan Village and even got to see a dog sled demonstration while on the river.  The picture below is Ken and I waiting for the stern wheeler.  Of course, there was a huge souvenier complex there.

After all the tours were over, we said good bye to our tour guide and all of Holland America staff.  We extended our stay at the Fairbanks Westmark Hotel by one night, so the morning of Aug 3, we took a shuttle to the Fairbanks Airport and rented a car.  I neglected to say that our grandson Justin, who is in the Air Force, was transferred to Fairbanks Eielson AFB, and he and his family arrived late in July to set up residence for the next three years.  It was our plan all along to take another day here and spend the weekend seeing them.  We did get to see them Saturday afternoon, but the highlight was when we picked them up Sunday at Noon and headed an hour out of Fairbanks to the Chena Hot Springs Resort and Aurora Ice Museum.  We didn't have a lot of time to see everything there, but we did have a wonderful late lunch/early dinner in the restaurant and then had a tour of the Aurora Ice Museum.  What a neat place.  It is always at a constant 20 degrees, and they supply you with very heavy parkas for you to stay warm while enjoying the ice carvings.  We had a wonderful time and our grandkids vowed to go back to spend a weekend.

  

The above first picture is of me and my granddaughter-in-law (Holly) having an Appletini (yummy) in an ice glass.  The second picture is of me, my grandkids Justin & Holly with baby Tristen leaving the ice museum. We had a great time and couldn't believe all they can sculpt out of ice.

After the ice museum, we had a very long drive back to Fairbanks and did have a Moose cross the road just ahead of us.  She was far enough away that there was no worry of us hitting her.  Anyway, as we took them back to where we picked them up, we just had to stop at The North Pole.  There was a visitor center there that we enjoyed, but the Santa Clause House was awesome!!  I never saw soooooo many Christmas decorations....EVER!!  Thank goodness we don't have that much time to decorate our home anymore or otherwise, Ken would have had a hey day picking up more decorations.

These pictures are taken in the town of North Pole.  In the first picture is Holly, Me, Justin (holding Tristen). The second picture is Ken and Me in front of the Santa Clause House.

  

We had a wonderful time with our grandkids, but sadly had to say goodbye as we were due to catch the red eye out of Fairbanks that night and fly back to Portland, Oregon.  We earlier had checked our bags at the hotel where they had an Alaska Airlines Desk, so all we had to do was turn the rental car (a Rav 4) back into Hertz, then make our way to the gate (there were only 6 gates-a very small airport).  We got there at 9:30 pm and were the only ones going through security, so had no problem.  After a bit, more people showed up, but when we boarded at 11:30 pm, there were not that many getting on our plane.  We ended up having a row of three seats each to ourselves (yay).....  We landed at PDX at 4:30 am on the morning of August 5 and our daughter and son-in-law picked us up.  Needless-to-say, we were exhausted and needed some long down time.

After being home for two weeks, we are now in the process of packing and getting ready for our September Salmon fishing trip in Yakutat, Alaska.  For many years, Ken has gone to "Yak", but I have only gone since 1999, so getting a chance to view other parts of Alaska was a dream come true.  Seeing our grandkids while there, was priceless!!!

This is a picture of Ken and Me while at our "Formal Dinner" the second night of our cruise on Holland America.  The next cruise we take will most likely be to another dream spot via Holland America Lines: Australia and New Zealand in 2014!