Moorea

Ted. Our next stop was originally supposed to be the island of Bora Bora. However, a new law was just passed and our ship is now considered too large to visit that island. We certainly understand but it was a disappointment. The result is that we spent two days and a night anchored in lovely Ōpūnohu Bay on the island of Moorea. 

View from our balcony

This tiny, 52 square mile island has just 16,000 residents. One main road circles the rugged interior. On our first day, we took the tender for a little walk around and a cold beer. 

Tiny beach

The second day, we stayed on the ship to do some fun activities. Judy will report on that later.

Tahiti

Ted. After three relaxing days exploring Brisbane, we boarded our cruise ship, Royal Caribbean’s Quantum of the Seas, bound for Hawaii by way of French Polynesia. It took a week to reach our first stop; Papeete on the island of Tahiti. 

Port of Papeete

This town is the capital of the semi-autonomous “collectivity” of France called French Polynesia. Tahiti is the largest and most populous island and about 2/3 of all French Polynesians live here. I thought it was interesting to compare the two island groups that we would visit. 

Island group      # of islands  Area, sq mi  Population    % Polynesian

French Polynesia       121             1,360          279,000               74

Hawaii                          137             6,423       1,455,000               11 

We had prearranged a full day, small group tour of the west coast of the Tahiti with a company called Unique Tahiti (uniquetahiti.com). Our guide, Dominick, is a native Tahitian. He did a great job leading the six of us (four Americans and two Australians) to a number of interesting sites and we can recommend the company.

Dominick & Judy

Paea city hall

Black sand beach

Fern cave

Teahupoo River

The lagoon, protected by the reef

4' long eels - yum!

We stopped for lunch at a little seafood restaurant right on the water. 

A native Tahitian, Dominick spent a lot of time describing the lives of Tahitians before the arrival of Europeans 400 years ago as well as their lives today. While we enjoyed the beauty of the island, it was the people that dominated our conversations.

Though Tahiti has a colonial past, life here is very much dominated by the majority Polynesian population. The French provide administrative support but daily affairs are managed by the Polynesians themselves. This is quite a contrast from New Zealand, Australia or certainly the US where the indigenous folks have been largely pushed aside.

Brisvegas

Judy. Since we were taking our Transpacific cruise from Brisbane, Queensland, we thought we might as well spend a couple of days there and take in one more bit of Australia. I’m glad we did; it couldn’t be any more different from our days in quiet Adelaide. 

Brisbane is Australia’s third largest city, quickly catching up to Melbourne, if the stories we were told are true. More than once we heard it called “Brisvegas” because of all the casinos, and we sure saw a lot of those! 

New casino going up behind an old government building

A couple of people described it to me as a combination of a country town and a modern city, and the architecture bears that out. New, shiny modern skyscrapers snuggle up to old territorial government buildings. Our hotel was a 26-floor high-rise, across from the Treasury Casino, located in an old Treasury building.

 

Treasury Casino next to our highrise

Night view from the hotel

We arrived on Easter Sunday, and since that day and the next were public holidays, the town was fairly quiet. On Monday, though, we began to explore what we could. First stop was the Brisbane Botanic Gardens, well deserving of its outstanding reputation. We took a long walk around the perimeter, even spotting some “flying foxes”, a type of bat that the locals hate for their invasion of private gardens and the loud noises they make. They were pretty darned fussy with each other but we enjoyed watching them. 

Australian Ibis by the lily pond

The city is divided by the Brisbane River, so we hopped a free shuttle boat and rode to the end of the line and back part way to a brewery for lunch. On the boat, Ted spotted a guy in a Bulldogs (University of Georgia) t-shirt and asked if he was a fan. Yes, he was, and he and his wife live near there! We met neighbors! 

Not only were they our neighbors in Georgia, but Eric and Gina would also be on the ship to Hawaii, so of course we

Lunch with Gina

had lunch together, chatting for a couple of hours before we walked back to the hotel along the riverwalk. 

Story Bridge from the River Walk

On Tuesday, the working force was back with a vengeance! We made our way through the crowds to breakfast, then took some time to explore the city—Anzac Park, St. Stephen’s Catholic Cathedral, and St. John’s Anglican Cathedral (where a sign welcomed the homeless for a place to sleep). 

St. John's Anglican Cathedral

Anzac Square, in honor of Australian soldiers

Old & new side by side

Arcade--the oldest in the city

After exploring a bit, we met Robyn, a Servas host who took a few hours to show us around and tell us about herself and her town. She took us to the South Bank of the river (we were staying on the North Bank), which was filled with theatres, museums, cafes, and a “Brisbane Eye” Ferris wheel for the tourists. There’s a long green space along the river that includes a “public beach” complete with sand, and several pools. It was a beautifully welcoming space, built after an Expo in Brisbane. Hard to believe that a few years ago it was a marsh! 

Much-loved  City Beach by the river

Robyn took us to the top of the Emporium Hotel for sparkling wine and a stunning view of the city, 

View from the Emporium Hotel roof

then to a small cafe where we ate “Moreton Bay bugs”, a Brisbane favorite shellfish—bigger than a prawn and smaller than lobster, and delicious. (On the first night in town, Ted ordered a “bug salad sandwich”, after the poor waitress who had no idea what it was tried to describe it: “Not a bug. Minced shells…” Her English was not so good, but the sandwich was tasty.) 

Yummy "bugs"!

Lunch with Robyn

As rush hour started up again, Robyn headed home and Ted and I walked across the river to the hotel. 

On our last morning, we walked to the Botanic Gardens again for breakfast at the cafe there, then walked along the river, crossed one of many pedestrian bridges, and wandered back along the South Bank. There are dozens of things we didn’t see in Brisbane, just like always happens, but we got a taste of it. 

I honestly didn’t think much of Brisvegas when we arrived, but after wandering around, it grew on me.

The wines of South Australia

Ted. One of the discoveries we have made in our travels is that great wine is being made in many, many countries around the world. Sure - we knew about Chile, South Africa and many countries in Europe. We did not know about the good wine in British Columbia, Mexico and Turkey. 

Of course we were aware that a lot of wine is produced in Australia. As it turns out, the country ranks fifth in the world listing of wine production by country. While we have had great wine from New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania, we did not know that more than half of the country’s wine is produced in just one state; South Australia. That is why we decided that we had better check out some of the wineries before we left the region. 

We began our "research" at the National Wine Centre of Australia in downtown Adelaide. We learned about the many different wine regions around the state and the country. We also visited a tasting room featuring over 100 wines. 

National Wine Centre

Wine Centre tasting room

By the time we left Adelaide, we had driven through four wine regions; Clare Valley, Adelaide Hills, McLaren Glen and Barossa Valley. Each is famous for the production of wine from well known grapes like Pinot Gris and Shiraz but we found that the wineries are continually experimenting with less well known grapes such as Touriga. 

The famous Barossa Valley

The grounds at legendary Seppeltsfield

Tasting room at Wirra Wirra in McLaren Glen

We also discovered that Australia currently has a surplus of wine due, in part, to China closing it’s border during the pandemic. Our friendly local liquor store was actually buying up surplus wine from well know wineries around Adelaide and private labeling it at crazy low prices. We have done our best to reduce the glut but don't worry, there is still plenty of excellent wine to be had!

Excellent Seppeltsfield bottle for $31 US

Darned good liquor store bottle at $6 US

Arkaroo Rock

Ted. We didn’t have much time to wander the Flinders Ranges but wanted to take one hike before we left the Outback. For our destination, we chose a well known rock up the side of one of the small mountains. 

As we set out on the dusty red trail, I was immediately transported back to our wonderful hikes in New Mexico just a few months ago. There were no snakes this time but we did observe some critters that would have been right at home in the Chihuahuan Desert.

Her web was probably 4 feet wide

Feral goat

Periodic flights of Australian Ringneck parrots overhead reminded us of which continent we were on. 

Internet photo (I'm not that good!)

After a couple of hours we came across a strange looking rock. Apparently, this was the site of induction ceremonies held by the local tribes for time immemorial. Some of pictographs (behind a protective screen) are thought to be at least 5,000 years old. 

As we made our way back to the car park, we couldn’t help wondering what other secrets were still guarded by these 600 million year old rocks.

Outback road trip

Ted. One of our objectives during our stay in Adelaide was to venture north to get a small taste of the outback; specifically a taste of a beer in an outback pub. 

The state of South Australia is huge; about the size of Texas and New Mexico combined! The bottom third has a fair amount of moisture and a pleasant Mediterranean type climate. This is also where the vast majority of it’s 1.8 million residents live. However, we wanted to tippy toe into that northern bit that is basically all desert. 

Our target was the old copper mining town of Blinman - population 43. It’s 300 miles due north of us, and the trip took about seven hours. There are no freeways. It’s just two lane blacktop going through every small downtown along the way. As we headed north, we quickly left the suburbs of Adelaide and found ourselves in wheat country. This was where many of the first settlers came, back in the 1840’s. 

Soon we crossed the Goyder’s Line. North of here, the annual precipitation is less than 10 inches so crops should not be grown. This was sheep country and one measures the land, not by how many sheep can live on an acre but how many acres it takes to support one sheep. This is a hard land and most farmers didn’t make it. One man we met had an ancestor who had to sell a 6,000 acre station (ranch) because it was too small to be profitable. Every few miles we’d spot an abandoned farmhouse. 

The towns we met were tiny and typically featured a hotel/pub, a cafe, a general store, a public toilet and, if we were lucky, a gas station. 

Melrose sits at the base of Mt Remarkable

We saw lots of red kangaroos, wallabies, wallaroos and emus. They tend to wander onto the road at dusk, posing a serious hazard to driving. The most common vehicle here is a pickup truck with a heavy grill on the front to protect the fender when local wildlife is eventually struck. 

Wedge tailed eagle pays his respects

Before long, we entered the Flinders Ranges which is a series of low mountain ranges with the highest point being 3,800 feet. They are starkly beautiful and ancient. Rocks here date back 600 million years We finally reached our destination and enjoyed tasty steak pies (they were sold out of the kangaroo and curry pies) washed down with the local brew. Dessert was a tart made from quadongs, a plum like fruit that grows here. 

Our local residence was a cabin at a sheep station. Yes, there were sheep and the restaurant was in the old woolshed. This proved to be a good base for more exploration. But that will be a story for another day…

Sunset at Rawnsley Park Station