Hawaii (Part 2) Maui

Maui

We looked out the window as our plane was descending over Maui and I think we both instantly knew that this was the place we were going to live. We landed at Kahului airport and had to find a taxi to take us to our hostel. On both Oahu and Maui luggage is not allowed on buses. This is a real pain for tourists because taxies can be very expensive. When we told our taxi driver the name of our hostel his reply was, "You do NOT want to stay there!" This was very disconcerting but we really had no choice. This was the only place we could find on short notice. Every room on the island seemed to be booked up because it was Valentine's week. The taxi driver was so upset that we were staying there that he offered to wait in the parking lot while we checked out the room in case we wanted him to take us someplace else. The name of the Hostel was, The Maui Wowie and the "Wow" part was pretty accurate but not in a good way. We had a tiny dark room with bunk beds on one end of the room and a bathroom with no door on the other. There was no room to turn around. We could only move forward or backward-no side to side. We had to literally climb over the toilet to get into the shower but we had stayed in worse places so we chose to stick it out. This would be our home until we found a permanent place to live. Because it was so unpleasant, it actually motivated us, even more, to find a place as soon as possible. We got on the bus one day so that Darren could apply for a job in town and then we realized we had gotten on the wrong bus and we wound up in Lahaina. 

Lahaina's Famous Banyan Tree covers 2/3 of an acre

Our fabulous room at the Maui Wowie

We liked it so much that we decided that's where we would focus our search for jobs and a place to live. Desperate to get out of the Mowie Wowie, which proved to be more of a halfway house than a hostel based on the people who were living there full-time, we took the first and only place we looked at. It was a cute little 500 sq ft. cottage in Lahaina with an ocean view. In Fiji, I had doodled a picture of our imaginary Hawaiian home in Darren's notebook. The cottage was exactly like my drawing except for one minor inaccuracy. I drew the ocean in our backyard and a view of the mountains in the front. The cottage actually had an ocean view in the front and the West Maui Mountains directly behind it. As if the ocean view wasn't excitement enough, it also had a washer and dryer, my dream come true. No more washing clothes in a bucket or the sink only for them to be blown away in the wind never to be seen again (see the blog post, Thailand). The cottage came fully furnished which was perfect since we had nothing but a week's worth of tattered clothing and a large collection of ketchup packets. We weren't allowed to get on the bus with our big backpacks so I reserved a rental car. The day we were supposed to move to Lahaina they called and said they ran out of cars so we called a taxi company and they told us it would be $70 to take us from where we were staying in Wailuku over to our new place in Lahaina. Using our backpacker ingenuity, we walked to another hostel down the street and found a nice French girl named Miryam with a rental car and offered her $20 to drive us to Lahaina. She was happy to do it because she hadn't figured out what she was going to do that day and hadn't seen Lahaina yet. Miryam was also on a world trip and we discovered that we had visited many of the same countries at the same time and here we were crossing paths again. She drove us to our new home, gave us big hugs as if our journey had been three weeks rather than thirty minutes, and we dropped our backpacks. Darren, having worked for a moving company for fourteen years proclaimed it was the easiest move ever. Unpacking took about five minutes. It felt nice to put clothes in a drawer instead of digging through a backpack. It also felt good to know we had a place to sleep with running water for an indefinite amount of time. No more daily searches to find a place to stay for the night. We had been in Maui for only a week and had already found a place to live. The next day Darren got a job and he started the day after that. Things had fallen into place so much easier than we had expected. When we quit our jobs in New York some people thought we were crazy to do such a thing "in this economy." But it all worked out. We had expected it would take weeks or even months to get settled but thanks to the motivation of fear of being stuck at the Maui Wowie, it took us only one week.

Then we got bad news from home that our friend Jan had suffered a stroke and we suddenly felt too far away. With Darren working already, we decided that I should fly back to New York. I wanted to visit Jan and I also needed to retrieve some of our important documents (In Hawaii you need a birth certificate, marriage license, and social security card just to apply for a license!) and bring back some appropriate clothing if we expected to hold down jobs. The best part about going back to New York was spending time with my friends and the worst part was leaving again. 

Double Rainbow in our backyard

Back in Maui, we had begun settling. Transitioning back into settled living was the hardest part about traveling. We had to get the cable and electricity set up and started paying rent and bills for the first time in over four months. The only bills we kept paying while we were traveling were my seemingly never-ending student loans. As usual, we didn't have much of a plan except that we signed a six-month lease so we would stay here for six months to a year or maybe forever.

Is this the Real World?

People have asked, "When are you going to come back to the real world?" I hadn't realized we had left "the real world." If anything, I would say that we entered the real world when we set out on this journey. We left a country where people will actually wait in line overnight so they can get the newest iPhone and we visited places where people wait in line for food and water. People in the United States will drive around a parking lot for ten minutes just so they can get the closest parking spot to the store while people in South Africa will walk barefoot through the mountains for ten miles under the merciless African sun every day just to get to work. I am grateful for my bed because I do not have to sleep on a dirt floor. I am grateful for my faucet because I can turn a knob and clean water will come out. I am grateful for my lamp because I flip a switch and there will be light. I do not NEED an iPhone. I will survive without one. The people who like to refer to the United States as the real world should feel very fortunate that they get to live in the United States and not in the real world.

Or is this the Real World? (This is me in Nepal)

People say things like, "I wish I could do that" and my answer would be, "You can." Barring any medical issues that might prevent you from traveling, I will tell you exactly how we did it and how you can do it too. We could have taken the money we saved for this trip and put a down payment on a house or bought a car but this is something we had always wanted to do. We worked really hard to get it and found a way to make it happen. We wanted this experience and didn't want to regret not going after it. None of the money was gifted to us. We never went on a honeymoon so after we finished paying off the debt from our very small wedding we went into "Saving Mode" (I will give the credit to my brother for coming up with this term). We remained completely focused on our goal and took the following steps which I think would make Suze Orman proud: We worked our full-time jobs plus took on as many extra side jobs as possible. We sold off as many of our possessions as we could. We lived well below our means in a one-bedroom four flight walk-up apartment in Queens. We rented so we did not have a mortgage. Luckily, my friend Jessie needed to find a place to live so we were able to sign our lease over to her which prevented us from breaking the lease and losing our security deposit. It also helped a lot that our friends Jan and Woody, who own one of the largest collections of camping and backpacking gear I have ever seen, loaned us backpacks and other gear worth over $600. Darren rode his bike to work every day. I took the subway. We ate all of our meals at home. We both packed lunches that we brought to work with us. We did not make any purchases that were not trip related. This is not to say that we never went out and had fun. There are plenty of free activities that we took advantage of like the free movies in Bryant Park and Chelsea Piers every week, free yoga in Bryant Park, free concerts in Central Park, free days at museums, etc... We could have made a million excuses to not go on this trip. It also helped that we don't have children. I hear they can be quite expensive but there are plenty of families who travel with children and I think it's fantastic if you can manage it. It might not have worked out in Hawaii and yes it was a risk but if we didn't take it we would have regretted it and would have always wondered what might have happened. Yes, so many things could have gone wrong but they didn't. We bought travel insurance that we fortunately never had to use. In Hawaii, if you work more than 20 hours a week it is mandatory that your employer provides Health Insurance. So Darren has health insurance for the first time ever and ironically he went from never getting sick to being sick for the first two months we were here. In four months in paradise, we've actually been sick and injured more times than our four months abroad. 

Sea Urchins-Do Not step on them!

Travel Tip #1: If you are surfing in Hawaii and you accidentally step on a sea urchin and you have eleven poisonous spines embedded in your foot, you should immediately soak your foot in a mixture of hot water and vinegar to suck out the poison and break down the spines. If your leg and mouth go numb you are one of the lucky people, like me, who is having a rare and severe allergic reaction.

OUCH!

Penelope Cruiser 

Adjusting to country living was challenging. It is very difficult living in the country and not having a car. It's not like we could just walk across the street to the grocery store like we did in New York. We couldn't just hop on a subway that comes every five minutes. There is a bus that comes once every hour so a trip to the grocery store can be a four-hour adventure. Finding a used car proved to be more difficult than finding a place to live or jobs. So first we bought some cheap used beach cruisers. They were all black which isn't really my style so I bought some cans of spray paint and gave my bike, Penelope Cruiser, a new look (Darren's bike is Tom Cruiser). After two months of taking the bus back and forth across the island to car dealerships, riding our bikes and filling our baskets with groceries, and (mom, don't read this part) the occasional hitch-hike into town, we finally found a car sold by the owner. Once we got the car we were able to get some fun toys like a stand-up paddleboard and surfboards so that we could really enjoy living in Hawaii. Once I was back from New York I also started looking for work. I applied for one job and got hired the same day. This was the same day we found our car so everything fell into place perfectly. Without the car, I wouldn't have been able to take the job because I work nights and it would be too dangerous for me to ride my bike home on the highway with no street lights. For all of our fears and apprehension and everyone's doubts about giving up our life, we took a risk and traded our life for one that was much better. I got a job with a company working as an Event Photographer. I commute one and a half miles to work and then I stand on the beach at sunset, usually at a luau and I take photographs of happy honeymooners and vacationing families. Sometimes I get to work at a big corporate event at a fancy hotel and I take photos of more happy people enjoying themselves. Other times I get to go on snorkeling or hiking trips and take more pictures of happy tourists. Darren rides his bike along the beach to get the work and watches all the sea turtles swimming by. His commute by bicycle is about ten minutes. He picks mangoes off the trees or the ground on his way home every day. We put mangoes on our breakfast, lunch, and dinner!

In the winter the best activity to do on Maui is to go on a whale-watching trip. We can see the whales from our front porch but getting out on a boat is even better. Every year starting in late September the Humpback Whales come all the way from Alaska to Maui to mate and give birth. We took a boat trip with the Pacific Whale Foundation, a non-profit whose mission is to protect our oceans through science and advocacy. Within three minutes of leaving the dock, we had whales swimming all around our boat. It was amazing. I think they were showing off for us by exhibiting some terrific whale behaviors like breaching, head slaps and tail slaps.

Breaching Humpback Whale

Obviously, another thing you have to do when you're in Hawaii is experience a luau. A Luau is a traditional Hawaiian feast with entertainment like hula or fire dancing. Because we still had our New York driver's licenses we were able to pretend to be tourists and got the whale watching trip and luau for free by sitting through timeshare presentations.

Luau

Travel Tip #2: Spend 60-90 minutes watching a timeshare presentation and get all of your activities for free. This includes luau's, dinner cruises, snorkel trips, whale watching trips and more...

Spinner Dolphins

One of Darren's coworkers has a sister who works for the Pacific Whale Foundation and she gave complimentary tickets for a dinner cruise so we got to do some more whale watching again. She also gave us free tickets for a snorkeling trip to Lanai. I have very bad luck with snorkeling trips. Our big trip to the Great Barrier Reef was canceled when we were in Australia (see post: Australia) and then Darren scheduled the snorkeling trip to Lanai for my birthday and it was canceled due to high winds. We decided to go on a cliff walk since our trip was canceled and I managed to get blown over by the high winds and sliced off the top of my toe on a lava rock. I am convinced the island is attacking my feet. In addition to stepping on the sea urchin and the lava rock incident, I have also had a giant thorn and a piece of glass go through my flip flop and stab me in the bottom of the foot. There was also a mysterious incident where I went for a run and came back with a sock full of blood. I am still baffled by this one. Someone, please send steel-toe boots.

Finally, my bad luck streak was broken and we were able to go on a rescheduled trip ten days later and we had perfect conditions. It's sad to see the whales leave in the summertime but when the whales swim to Alaska the dolphins come for the summer. On our way to Lanai, we had about one hundred Spinner Dolphins swimming alongside our boat! They also followed us on our way back to Maui along with a family of about five Bottlenose Dolphins. 

Bottlenose Dolphin

Another thing I'd recommend doing on Maui is driving the Road to Hana. This is basically the long winding road that takes you around the entire island along the coast. You can drive it in seven hours without stopping but the whole point is to make multiple stops along the way to see all of the beaches and waterfalls and hiking trails. The first stop is Twin Falls. An easy hiking trail will lead you to two separate falls. In order to get to the second, and in my opinion, a better waterfall you will need to wade through water that is knee to waist deep so plan accordingly. The second stop is Waikamoi which has a 70' waterfall. The next stop is the Garden of Eden. It's an arboretum with many beautiful walking paths filled with indigenous tropical plants and trees. There are some terrific views of waterfalls and its claim to fame is that it overlooks the exact spot that was filmed in the opening scene to Jurassic Park. (see photo below)

Garden of Eden

Seven Sacred Pools

Stop number four is the Ke'anae Peninsula where you can explore the magical shoreline. Stop number five is Pua'a Ka'. It has another 20' waterfall and some fun swimming holes. There's also another more powerful waterfall up higher but we did not get to see it because the rain prevented us from hiking the slippery rocks. The next stop is Waianapanapa and it's just outside of Hana. It's a special family-run place with incredible views, pounding surf, a blowhole, caves, and a pebbly black sand beach. There is also a trail that leads you through the Hau forest. Before entering the forest there is a sign that tells the story of the Ancient Princess who was murdered there so there is a little bit of haunted creepiness to the trail that makes it a little more exciting. If you want to camp overnight at Waianapanapa you must apply for a permit three days in advance. We didn't know about this until we got there so we camped overnight in Haleakala National Park which is a little bit further up the road. A permit is only $10 and we camped beside the ocean and under the biggest moon I've ever seen.


My favorite spot on the whole road to Hana trip was the Seven Sacred Pools which are also called the 'Ohe'o Gulch and are located within Haleakala National Park. They are the embodiment of paradise.

Seven Sacred Pools

Will Hawaii be our last stop or will this just be part of a never-ending journey? Right now, we are not sure but we're going to enjoy it while it lasts.

Epilogue

*As of today, Jan is making an amazing recovery. To the astonishment of all of her doctors, but not surprising to her friends who all know what an amazingly strong and determined person she is, she was home from the hospital three months before they had predicted. She has been working hard to make a full recovery with the goal of visiting us in Hawaii. 

Some travel inspiration

Documentaries: 

180 degrees South-By Jeff Johnson and Woodshed Films

A Map for Saturday- By Brook Silva-Braga

Books:

Little Gypsy- By Roxy Freeman

Ultra Marathon Man- By Dean Karnazes

The 4 Hour Work Week- By Timothy Ferris

Australia

Australia was very different from the rest of our trip in that we spent most of our time with friends and family. This was a nice change after two months on our own. Australia was one of the countries that I had picked. Darren lived in Australia for a year about 15 years ago but I had never been there and always wanted to go.

It was almost Christmas and every hotel was booked up. Fortunately for us, Darren's relatives live in Surfer's Paradise on the Gold Coast. I got to meet them for the first time and Darren got to see them for the first time in 15 years. It was so nice to spend Christmas with family rather than with a bunch of strangers in a guest house.

Although Darren's aunts originally came from Ireland, they settled into Australia pretty quickly and easily. They immigrated to Oz in the '70s and got jobs the very next day working as seamstresses for a man who was selling surf apparel on the beach. That company is known today as Billabong and now has 677 stores worldwide and made 1.79 billion dollars in revenue last year.

We thought Australia would be an easy country to travel around since it was English speaking and modern. What we found was that it was like a really expensive version of the United States except with funny accents. With all of the McDonald's and shopping malls, it didn't feel like we were in a foreign country at all. Darren's recollection of Australia 15 years ago was much different than it is today. He said it had become much more commercialized and incredibly expensive. Back then, he was able to travel around Australia for months without spending a thing. Plus, it's a huge country and all of the major attractions such as Ayers Rock and the Great Barrier Reef are days apart from each other. We didn't want to make the same mistakes we had made in some of the other countries we visited with trying to see everything so we realized we'd have to choose one or the other. Both would take 3 days by bus and another 3 days back. We chose to drive from Surfers Paradise to Townsville to see the Reef and fly back down to Sydney so that we could meet our friends, Anthony and Leanna, for New Year's Eve. After many phone calls, we found a company that actually still had spots available for a reef trip on the 30th. We'd have to leave on the 27th and drive with few stops. We looked into camper vans but everything was sold out. After hours of searching for rental cars, we finally found what seemed to be the last car available in the country but at a very high price. I didn't want to be in Australia and not get to see one of the great wonders of the world so we booked the car. Then when we tried to find accommodation in Sydney for New Year's Eve, everything was sold out or required a 7-10 night minimum. Even the hostels were charging $150 a night! Leanna told us that Sydney University rents dorm rooms to non-students but when we looked into it we found they were charging $140 a night with a minimum stay as well. We could only find accommodation outside of Sydney for the 1st so we'd miss New Year's Eve but at least we'd still get to see Anthony and Leanna while in Australia.

On Christmas day Darren and I had our picture taken with Santa. In Australia, Santa rides in a boat instead of a sleigh and he's guided by kangaroo riding surfboards instead of flying reindeer! There was a cyclone up north over Christmas so the surf was really dangerous in Surfers Paradise. Just a handful of some very experienced surfers were in the water so we didn't attempt to go surfing but we did get to try stand up paddleboarding. Darren's cousin took us on Boxing Day (we don't celebrate Boxing Day in America so this was my first!). I was instantly hooked and am now obsessed with this sport.

We set out for Townsville on the 27th and drove until it got dark. We spent all of our money on the car and had none left for hotels. Plus we didn't have much time to stop if we wanted to make it there in time for the reef trip. Australia is very accommodating to drivers and has rest stops everywhere. Some even have bathrooms and picnic tables. And they're free. My favorite thing was the "free driver reviver." It encourages drivers to pull over and rest if they're tired by giving out free cups of coffee and cookies. What a brilliant idea!

We pulled in at a rest stop but we had no tent or sleeping bags so we had to sleep in the back of our hatchback economy car. It was really hot so we opened the windows a bit but then all of the mosquitoes came in and were feasting on us. Needless to say, it was not the best night's sleep. For some reason, Darren is tastier to mosquitoes than I am and he was covered with bites.

Early the following morning we were back on the road driving through the Australian outback. We came across a small-town post office with just one little counter manned by two sweet ladies. We shipped home some of our winter gear we didn't need anymore, some souvenirs and gifts we had picked up along the way, and Darren's raincoat. He said he hadn't used the raincoat since we were in Nepal and since the Gold Coast boasts 300 days of sunshine per year, he didn't need it anymore. Not three hours later we found ourselves driving right into the cyclone we had been hearing about. Darren was exasperated over shipping the raincoat home and I had to pull over because I couldn't even see the road. I am known for attracting earthquakes but this was my first ever tropical cyclone. We waited on the side of the road until the rain slowed up a bit and then Darren took the wheel. It was coming down so hard the car was shaking back and forth. We pulled over at a gas station and waited nearly two hours but it hardly slowed down. We tried driving some more and made it to Airlie Beach. To my dismay, I discovered that there is no beach in Airlie Beach. It's a charming and lively port town on the waterfront but its name is deceiving. We could find no campsites and the cyclone was getting dangerous. Despite signs prohibiting camping overnight, we had no choice but to pull in on a quiet side street and sleep in the back of the car again. There were no mosquitoes but this time we got soaked.

The skies were finally clearing the next day. As we drove through the bush we witnessed the aftermath of the storm. Several cars had skidded off the road and overturned and there were dead kangaroos all over the road.

We made it to Townsville by that afternoon. We stopped at the dive shop where we had booked our Great Barrier Reef trip for the next day. They told us to check back with them in a couple of hours. They said the trip might be canceled due to the weather and rough seas. We had driven for two days, went straight through a cyclone in an overpriced rental car which we slept in for two nights, all to see the reef and now there was a possibility it would be canceled. We tried to remain calm and optimistic and looked for a place to stay.

Townsville was a ghost town. In Australia, all of the businesses pretty much shut down for two weeks during Christmas time and New Year's. If the trip was canceled we didn't know what we'd do.
We found a hostel that was incredibly overpriced considering it looked exactly like a prison complete with cinder block walls and views through the bars from one cell block to another. But it was better than sleeping in the car. We had grown a great appreciation for simple comforts like pillows and brushing our teeth with tap water-things most people in developed countries take for granted.

We went back to the dive shop a couple hours later and learned that all trips to the Great Barrier Reef were canceled until January 2nd. Our flight to Sydney was leaving on January 1st. If I had to pick the most disappointing part of our trip, the canceled trip to the Great Barrier Reef would be it. We had driven all that way and spent all that money for nothing. We were devastated but it was a minor upset compared to all of the things that could possibly go wrong while traveling around the world so we decided to try and make the most of our time in Townsville.

The information center in town told us that if we couldn't see the Reef we could go to the local aquarium, Reef HQ. They said it was the next best thing. So we paid $21 each to visit the aquarium and felt it was a big waste of time and money. It didn't even come close to an actual visit to the reef and in my opinion, the Phuket Aquarium (see Thailand post) was far better. All it did was make us more depressed about our canceled trip. I will say that while the coral tank was completely lacking in labels or interpretation, they seemed to dump all of their money in a nice exhibit upstairs with interactive technology and flat-screen video signage. If the fish in the displays get switched to different locations or die, then all they have to do is change the information on the monitor rather than printing and installing a new sign. This is really smart and could definitely make their coral and other exhibits on the first floor more informative and interesting.

Rather than visiting the aquarium, I'd recommend going across the hall to the free Cultural Center. The museum's focus was all about the history, struggles, and traditions of the Aborigines. I found it both interesting and alarming at how similar their stories are to those of the Native Americans and the Maoris in New Zealand. What struck me the most was how mixed or "half-caste" Aboriginal children were taken away from their parents to be raised in institutions. In addition to the cultural museum, there was an art gallery featuring some very nice works of art by Aboriginal artists.

Afterward, we had a picnic lunch at Kissing Point. It's located at the very end of The Strand (This is the road that runs parallel to the beach in Townsville). At Kissing Point there is a giant saltwater rock pool that they built in the ocean. It protects people from stingers, jellyfish, and sharks. It was much more creative and attractive than a traditional shark net.




Then we drove up to Castle Hill which is just a few meters shy of being classified as a mountain. At the top, there are views of the beach, Magnetic Island and all of Townsville.





We also visited the Queens Gardens. Townsville has three separate gardens which together form Townsville Botanic Gardens. In addition to Queens Gardens are Anderson Gardens in Mundingburra and the Palmetum in Annandale. Initiated in 1870, Queens Gardens is the oldest Botanic Garden in Townsville and is heritage listed.

Afterward, we tried to find an Internet cafe so we could check our email and make our plans for Sydney. We couldn't find an Internet cafe all week so we had to come up with creative ways to get free WiFi.

Travel tip: If you sit in the parking lot of McDonald's you can pick up their WiFi signal. No password is needed. No purchase necessary. We never once resorted to eating at McDonald's during our travels but they are very handy when you need to use the restroom or check your email.

On New Year's Eve, we took a ferry from Townsville to Magnetic Island. It was a scenic boat ride that took about 35 minutes. It cost $175 for the car ferry so we left the car and rode as passengers for 56 AUD for two. Of course, all of the rooms on the island were booked up for New Year's so we'd have to get the last ferry back to Townsville or sleep on the beach. An all-day bus pass cost 7.50 AUD and we were able to ride from one end of the island to the other and stop at all of the beaches in between. Magnetic Island has more than 22 secluded beaches and bays and a national park. With 320 days of sunshine per year, it is the sunniest spot on the Queensland Coast. The island earned its name because of the apparent "magnetic" effect it had on the compass of Captain Cook's ship as he passed the island when sailing up the east coast of Australia in 1770.

After a long relaxing day on Magnetic Island, we took the ferry back to Townsville. It was the quietest place I've ever been to on New Year's Eve. We strolled into a pub and some locals began chatting with us. They wanted to know what we were doing in quiet little Townsville on New Year's Eve. We told them how we couldn't get to Sydney for New Years and how difficult we were finding it to go anywhere or do anything because of the expense. They told us that most Australians actually travel overseas on vacation because it's cheaper than traveling within Australia. They said that they fly to Thailand or South Africa every year because international flights are even cheaper than domestic flights. This explained why we saw so many Australians in Thailand. Then they told us about a concert and fireworks at Reid Park. This wound up being a fantastic tip. We found Reid Park and a huge open-air concert was going on. There was also a massive fireworks display at midnight. The best part was that since it was summertime in Australia we were comfortable outside in t-shirts rather than freezing in the snow in New York.

On New Years Day we flew back to Sydney. I say "back" because we had a four-hour layover in Sydney when we flew from Thailand to the Gold Coast. In hindsight, this was poor planning. Or lack of planning which has been our style throughout most of our trip. Sometimes it works and sometimes it really doesn't. Especially when things need to be booked in advance during major holidays! So we were back in Sydney again. We spent several hours taking the wrong trains before we found our hotel so our first day there was pretty much over.

The next day we met Anthony and Leanna at Circular Quay. Having no phone, this required careful coordination and a lot of emailing from McDonald's. They asked us how we didn't lose each other while traveling with no phone. We demonstrated for them a travel tip given to us by our friends Jan and Woody.

Travel Tip #2: Create your own personal bird call. When you can't find your partner or spouse, call out something like, "WHOOP WHOOOP!!" All they have to do is follow the sound and you will be reunited again.

It was great to see familiar faces again. We had missed seeing our friends in India and I was worried that the same thing would happen again. Anthony is from England and was my coworker and roommate when I was in New Zealand last year (see New Zealand blogs). Leanna is Australian and I met her when she came from London to help out in our office in New York last summer. They were in Australia visiting Leanna's family for Christmas. Now here we all were an American, an Englishman, an Irishman, and an Australian. All we needed was a punchline.

We took the ferry to Manly and walked around the beaches and shops. We also explored some amazing cliff walks before heading back on the ferry and getting drinks by the opera house at sunset. Afterward, we walked around The Rocks and found a pub. Anthony liked this area the best. I think this was because it's Sydney's historic old town with charming cobblestone laneways and historic buildings that reminded him of England. The rocky sandstone ledge known as "The Rocks" is where members of the First Fleet stepped ashore on January 26, 1788, and the British settlement of Australia was first established.

The next day we met Anthony and Leanna at Circular Quay again and then we all went to the Royal Botanic Gardens for a picnic. The Botanic Gardens are free and located on Sydney Harbor and have great views of the Sydney Opera House and Harbor Bridge. One place of interest in the park is Mrs. Macquarie's Chair. It's an exposed sandstone rock cut into the shape of a bench, on a peninsula in Sydney Harbour, hand-carved by convicts from sandstone in 1810 for Governor Macquarie's wife Elizabeth. The peninsula itself is named Mrs. Macquarie's Point and is located at the end of Mrs. Macquaries Road.

Our stroll through the gardens led us to the Art Gallery of New South Wales. The exhibits were a mix of contemporary, classical, and Aboriginal art. At that time there was a special exhibit on Picasso. It was not his work that was on display but rather photographs of him and his family and videos of Picasso himself at work in his studio.

Afterward, we walked through the city center to take in all the sights and then finally finished our little day tour at Darling Harbor.

The following day we packed up and moved again to a serviced apartment in Bondi just walking distance from the world-famous Bondi Beach.

By this point in the trip, the new flip-flops (or thongs as they call them in Australia) I had purchased in September just before we left for our trip had become completely worn down. I racked up so much mileage that I wore a hole straight through to the bottom so that my toe was touching the ground. With no shortage of surf shops in Bondi, a replacement pair was not hard to find.

The next day we bought two round-trip bus tickets to Circular Quay for 14 Australian dollars. Then we paid 22 AUD for two ferry tickets to the Taronga Zoo. When we got there we learned that admission was $44.50 each! Even with the two 15% off coupons we had, it still cost $75 for admission to the zoo. I can't imagine how Australian families can manage to afford to do fun things with their kids with prices like that. It's not like it was an overly impressive zoo either but with what they were charging you would think it would be like Disney Land. There wasn't anything realistic about the animal habitats. They were basic enclosures that said nothing about the animals' natural environment. Although, we did get lucky with our timing because it was the animals themselves that made the experience enjoyable. We saw what looked like a gang fight between some angry chimpanzees. They were screeching, beating their chests, and chasing each other for more than twenty minutes. It was really exciting. We also were there just in time for the giraffes to be fed and got to see the baby elephants taking their baths.

We had planned to stay in Australia for 3 weeks or more. Even though we stayed with relatives for almost a week, the expense of just about everything had put us way over budget. So we had to cut our trip short at 2 1/2 weeks. That night, we booked flights to New Zealand for January 7th.

The day we left Australia we found ourselves in airport limbo yet again. We had to check out of the apartment at 10 am but our shuttle to the airport wasn't until 3 pm. We had to carry our packs around with us for 5 hours because the serviced apartment was not like a hotel where there would be luggage storage. A good use of our time would have been to book outbound tickets leaving New Zealand but instead, we found a park and watched a cricket match. When we were checking in at the airport at 4 pm they asked to see our outbound tickets. We had none. We had wanted to stay in New Zealand for three weeks or more and had no definitive schedule or plans. Apparently, the New Zealand Government requires proof of a plane ticket out of their country in order for you to be allowed in. I had been to New Zealand less than a year ago and they never asked to see my outbound ticket but apparently, things had changed. We had to run to the nearest Internet kiosk carrying 25-pound backpacks through a crowded airport. They wanted $10 for just 20 minutes of Internet. I refused on principle so we ran carrying our packs like we were in that TV show "The Amazing Race" to find the free Internet kiosks at the food court. All three kiosks were being used by Facebook addicts but just as I was about to tackle someone for their computer, they got up and we booked the fastest flights in history. Darren was able to connect to the food court WiFi and download the tickets onto his iPod. The woman at the check-in counter said she needed to see a paper ticket but it's 2012 and we live in a paperless society. Get with the program.
When we ran back to check in again, we got a different agent who reluctantly accepted our electronic ticket and checked us in for our flight.

Travel Tip #3: If you are traveling to New Zealand, you must have a paper ticket showing your outbound trip or you will be running like a lunatic through an airport trying to buy a plane ticket.

Mount Maunganui, Tauranga, New Zealand

Week 2

I left Auckland on Monday and headed off on a three-hour drive to Tauranga, The Bay of Plenty. It shouldn't really take that long but as this was my first solo left-side drive I wanted to take it slow. So for the next three hours, I got the hang of driving while taking in the absolutely gorgeous scenery. But the more I saw, the angrier I got thinking about how deprived the rest of us are for not ever knowing such beauty exists. It was like the scene in "The Wizard of Oz"  when Dorothy's house lands in Oz and everything is transformed from black and white to technicolor. I left cold gray dreary New York and I found the yellow brick road.



Another refreshing change is that you won't find a McDonald's along New Zealand's Highways. Just cute little roadside cafes with fresh homemade food made by mom and pop. I never would have thought chicken and apricots would be a tasty combination but put them together in some fresh bread and you've got one really delicious panini. Another thing you probably won't run into at a rest stop on one of America's highways is these cute little guys.

So here I am now in Mount Maunganui, or Mauao, which means "caught by the morning sun." I'm staying just a short block from the beach and lucked out once again and was loaned a surfboard by the nice guy who works in the office at my motor lodge. I was at the beach by 6:30 the next morning to watch the sun come up and get baptized by the New Zealand waters. Then I went for a short run on the beach and was at work by 9am. Not a bad way to start the day. I could definitely get used to this.



Mount Maunganui

On Saturday I decided I wanted to hike up to the top of the Mauao. The Mauao is a dormant volcanic cone that is 232 meters high and has 250 sheep grazing its slopes. It was a fairly steep climb to the top that really gets your heart racing. I consider myself in pretty good shape but took a blow to the ego when I was struggling near the very top and a man of about 80 who looked like the Kiwi Jack LaLanne sprinted past me while yelling words of encouragement, "You can do it! It will be worth it!" I soothed myself with the excuse that I was carrying at least ten pounds of weight in my backpack and therefore I was being slowed down but then, not one but two young girls wearing casts on their legs up to their knees went by me.

My daily count of broken limbs averages somewhere between 3-5 per day. Kiwi kids are fearless. They don't go home to play video games after school. They head straight to the beach with their surfboards. Their parents meet them there after work and go surfing right along with them. I've seen children as young as 5 surfing and even a woman of about 75 riding a bodyboard. Then they will lay out a blanket and have their family dinner on the beach. The children here are free. They climb on the rocks and if they get hurt, so what? They put a cast on it and keep going straight up to the summit of a volcano. But Kiwi Jack Lalanne was correct. It was definitely worth it. The view from the top was breathtaking. It would be worth the effort even with a broken leg.

Naked toddler climbing the rocks

View of Moturiki and Motuotau Islands from the top of the Mauao

After the summit, I hiked along the base track and watched as the waves crashed on the volcanic rocks that line the shore. The beauty of this place is just astonishing to the point of being overwhelming. It seems a shame that I am here all by myself and can't share this with anyone else. If a tree falls in the woods and there is no one there to hear it, does it make a sound?

Base track of the Mauao

Another option besides the base track of the Mauao, if you feel you're not up to going to the summit is to walk up Mount Drury which is just down the road. Its paths are not as steep and are much easier if you're just looking for a casual walk. The views from the top are also really pretty. You could also try the paths on Moturiki Island which you can access from the beach. Hike up its paths and you will get the ocean perspective of Mount Maunganui. You'll be looking back at the shore from its hills.

My hike among the elderly and wounded really worked up an appetite. Conveniently located across the street are many choices of cafes to eat in. Here's another travel tip: If you order an iced coffee in New Zealand don't expect it to be filtered coffee with ice. What you will get is a milkshake with coffee-flavored ice cream. That's right! It's now week two and I still haven't gotten the hang of the coffee thing. I thought I was getting the hang of the driving on the left side too but judging by the look of my car apparently not. oops!

The perfect thing to do after a morning hike up a dormant volcano is stroll on over to the Salt Water Hot Pools strategically located right at the base of the Mauao. There are many geothermal pools in the region but Mount Maunganui is the only place in New Zealand where you'll find hot saltwater pools. They have several pools of varying temperatures that you can choose from and it's a great way to loosen up the muscles after a long day of volcano climbing.

After that, I walked over to the beach to watch the rest of the lifeguard competition. Dozens of young kids were competing in a grueling competition where they run through the sand then kayak or board through the ocean waves dragging their equipment. These kids are unbelievably fit and I realized I have yet to see an overweight child here. If I was ever drowning, one of these ten-year-olds would no doubt be able to rescue me.


Every Sunday morning there is a Farmers Market. They have live music and lots of local produce and homemade treats. I did a little shopping and then decided if I was in one of the best surfing towns in New Zealand I should go visit their surfing museum. The museum is located downstairs in the Mount Surf Shop and has a vast collection of classic surfboards. The co-owner, surfer businessman Dusty Waddell has the best and biggest collection of surfboards in Australasia. The shop museum shows the different eras of New Zealand surfing.

Mount Surf Shop and Museum

Omanawa Falls

The next stop was Omanawa falls. It was a bit hard to find since it was out in the middle of nowhere on yet another long and windy road. Since all of the roads here seem to be long and windy that made it even more difficult to locate. There's a tiny little sign posted at the start of the path but it was so small I drove right past it and had to make a u-turn. Even then I wasn't sure if I was in the right spot because there were no markings on the road or trail. I set out anyway and was finally greeted by my tour guide here in the picture below.



(Why do pigs keep following me wherever I go?) The falls were really pretty and just because this country seems to keep outdoing itself, there was a rainbow coming out of the water cascading into the Omanawa River. The experience was abruptly cut short by a mysterious locked steel door at the end of the path blocking entry down to the river (am I in a new episode of LOST?) That's as far as you can go and it was disappointing to go all that way and get so close to the falls and the beautiful rainbow and not be able to get near it. Maybe I should have clicked my hiking boots together and said, "there's no place like home" but I have two weeks left here and I'm not ready for this dream to be over yet.