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Flinder Train Station in Melbourne, Astralia. Picture provided by Ann Cabot who visited here in December 2008. She previously contributed an article about moving. Listen to her interview and find out about her book. Also see her report on her visit to Melbourne

Australia the Land Down Under and New Zealand

Tips to surviving

• Don't ever put your hand down a hole for any reason whatsoever.
• We mean it.
• The beer is stronger than you think, regardless of how strong you think it is.
• Always carry a stick. Air-conditioning.
• Do not attempt to use any Australian slang, unless you are a trained linguist and good in a fistfight.
• Thick socks.

Source: www.bbc.co.uk

Travel brings us to exciting, new places where we learn to look at life all over.

Travel to New Zealand

Ann Cabot traveled to Australia and New Zealand in 2008. She shared her photos and comments about her trip. She took these great pictures and wrote her account of this trip to Melbourne, Australia.

Sperm whales, penguins and beautiful flowers on or near the South Island (New Zealand) - pictures courtesy of Ann Cabbot

Here's what she writes about that tripn to New Zealand.

When you look at a typical map, New Zealand is about as far around the world from the US as one can get. Despite this, in December of 2008, I made the long flight over the Pacific Ocean and discovered an astounding world: rainforests that met glaciers, foggy waterways called sounds that emptied into the Tasman Sea and welcoming smiles from the locals.

New Zealand is comprised of two main islands, North Island (pop. 2 million) and South Island (pop. 1 million). Its nearest (and only) neighbor is Australia. Unlike Australia, New Zealand has no endemic land animals. It does have an abundance of endemic birds, including the kiwi bird, and sea creatures such as the rare and endemic Hector's dolphin http://www.doc.govt.nz/conservation/native-animals/marine-mammals/dolphins/hectors-dolphin/ , fur seals, elephant seals and the smallest penguin in the world, the Little Blue penguin ttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Penguin.

I began my week's visit to the South Island in Christchurch and stayed right downtown at the Holiday Inn (sometimes it is nice to have conveniences away from home!). I walked around the town with its central cathedral and surrounding square, read menus of India, Greek, Moroccan, and New Zealand restaurants, and spent most of a day at the Art Centre. Here artists' shops are housed in a former college complex. Weavers, jewelers, cheese makers, Maori carvers shared the oak paneled hallways with chocolate shops, pastry stores and New Zealand clothing outlets. Outside, on the lawn, vendor tents were set up with more merchandise and a local elementary school choir sang Christmas songs I had a great time window shopping and when I needed a rest, ate at Dux du Lux, a wonderful restaurant and brewery on the premises. . I never noticed the 60 degree weather with drizzling rain that day!

On the second day, I rode the train for 3 hours along the Scenic Coastal Route to Kaikoura. The tracks ran right along the ocean and there was an open-air car where you could experience the ocean breezes and smells firsthand. At Kaikoura, I took a 45 minute helicopter ride over the ocean to find sperm whales. We encountered two, approaching each other from opposite directions. While we hovered overhead, these huge, square-headed whales met then submerged leaving only large circles in the water as they dove. In the afternoon I returned to Christchurch. All this was arranged ahead of time via the internet (Rail New Zealand and World of Whales Helicopter Tours).

I was joined on the third day by my adult son, the designated driver, and two other friends. We chose to sightsee only on the South Island and hired a Ford SUV through Hertz which was comfortable and roomy, yet looked and felt like a station wagon. Our journey around the South Island began by driving west out of Christchurch and over Arthur's Pass. Although this was the summer season, the mountains still had snow on their peaks, including the highest, Mount Cook. We rented 3 houses along the way, also all arranged beforehand. This website http://www.holidayhouses.co.nz/Te_Anau.asp is an example of the offerings available. Each transaction was informal, the key was left under the mat and the leasing agent would pay a visit to collect the money at some point during our stay. The average price was $100 per night for a 3-4 bedroom house with linens, utensils, tv, tea and coffee.

Although Milford Sound is the best known sound in New Zealand, we decided to visit its neighbor, Doubtful Sound, to avoid the crowds and to have a tour of the hydroelectric plant. For 3 hours ours was the only ship in the sound. We saw Little Blue penguins, Tufted penguins, Hector's dolphins and a colony of sea lions before exiting into the Tasman Sea at exactly the place that Captain James Cook discovered the sound in 1770. We also walked to Fox Glacier that descends from the mountains and meets rainforests with 20 foot tall tree ferns.

Our last leg of the sojourn around the South Island was in a tiny hamlet called Curio Bay, right along the southern coast of the island. We took an unpaved road that travels through the area and visited a coastal lighthouse where a large male? sea lion was sunning himself only yards away from a herd of local sheep called Marino, famous for their warm wool. I thought the seal lion was dead and called the others to see it. Imagine my shock when it began flipping sand as we stood way too close! There was also a yellow-eyed penguin colony nearby, so we braved the cold at dusk to watch several birds exit from the ocean and waddle to their den in the sand dunes. Our rental house here overlooked the ocean that separates New Zealand from Antarctica.

Despite how far away New Zealand was, the trip was worthwhile and very rewarding. The South Island especially is a unique island destination.

Whales off of New Zealand Coast

Penguins

Beautiful Flowers