Perth was a wonderful surprise. The city’s swan river is very pretty; the green space is abundant and would put most of Canada’s cities of comparable size to shame. Everywhere you look there are gardens, lush green trees, amazing flowers, and FRESH AIR. Shops and restaurants dot the downtown core.
The Swan River area, which is the heart of the city, was occupied by Australian Aborigines for at least 50,000 years prior to the arrival of British settlers, led by Captain James Stirling, who proclaimed the new colony in June 1829. With the help of convict labour – convict built architecture can be seen all around Perth and nearby Fremantle – Perth was declared a city in 1871. To the best of our knowledge, there are no ‘Chuck and Deborah’ relatives in the area. Commercially, Perth provides the distribution point for West Australia’s wheat, mining and wine industries.
Fremantle – from dowdy to seaside sensation
Fremantle, as our ‘Blue group’ tour leader, Elviera Mueller, succinctly described, was “a dump” for the longest while, until the Americas Cup came to town a few years ago, which prompted the locals to clean up their city. They clearly did a fine job and today it is a bustling town with fun shops, bistros and casual seaside pubs to stop for a drink. Deborah got the opportunity to dip her toes in the Indian Ocean following a delicious lunch of red snapper with the rest of the tour group. Chuck explored the town on his own and reported that he stopped for a beer and a light lunch.
It was an early start for our departure from Perth on October 19…a 6:00 a.m. breakfast and then onto the bus for our 11-hour flight to Mauritius - including a much welcomed 30-minute ‘gas stop’ in Jakarta….which provided enough time for Deborah to do a little light shopping.
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Friday, 20 Oct 2006
There were mixed reviews from our travel companions about our visit to Ayers Rock, known to the locals as “Uluru”. However, we liked our short stay there; mind you, we reckon you wouldn’t want to spend more than a day or two there, although our 5-star accommodations were most enjoyable and hardly roughing it.
Ayers rock was impressive. No picture can show the magnificence of the size and colours of the rock. It is 343 meters high with aboriginal sacred caves.
What we found most fascinating was the “Sounds of Silence” dinner – a truly magical experience. We were transported by bus to the ‘SOS’ site just before sunset where we quaffed champagne cocktails and were serenaded by musicians playing a didgeridoo and music sticks. We were then escorted to an open area that was set up with tables covered in fine white linens, wine glasses and silverware and were served dinner, literally under the stars. As the stars came out we supped on a buffet of vegetables, salads and various meats - including kangaroo… but Deborah passed on the dish as she couldn’t bear the thought of eating ‘Skippy’ or one of his relatives.
Finally, when the stars were truly aligned, the lights from the buffet hot table were doused and a man, who held two extraordinary high-beam torches, pointed out the various star combinations as he described their celestial meaning and position in the sky. (Deborah was informed of this later by Chuck because she konked out from fatigue and not booze, btw, on the table. Or so she says.)
Now as Chuck’s many fans are aware, he is the ‘guru’ of marketing and Deborah has been known to dabble in marketing, too, but folks, the promoters of Ayers Rock and the Olgas (another rock formation nearby) have got it all over Chuck and Deborah…why, you ask? Because they were able to get a whole bunch of us (Chuck and Deborah included) to get up at 5 in the morning, board a bus and head out to the rock to look at the sunrise. This turned out to be much ado about nothing…not much to see but we did get to keep the nifty knapsacks that carried our boxed breakfast. The knapsacks have come in handy: Chuck is using his to transport his Panasonic laptop (the one we’re using to tap out our blog). Deborah is using hers to provide for more ‘shopping item’ space.
Saturday, 14 Oct 2006
We departed for Sydney Australia on Friday, October the 13th. While some may be superstitious about this date, we believe it was one of our luckiest days on the trip. We departed for Australia at 3:00 p.m. local time and arrived in Sydney 3:00 p.m. local time – thus we arrived as we departed, as it were.
Chuck has been to Australia on several occasions for business and vacations and has many friends here. Deborah, however, had never been to Australia and is now a card-carrying Aussie wannabe. It also helped that we checked into the Sheraton on the Park, by far the best accommodation so far on the trip. Our rooms include high-speed Internet access, electric blackout blinds, art deco décor, walk-in closets and plush cotton housecoats. This is living!
Sydney is one of the most stunningly beautiful cities in the world. Its waterfront takes center stage, and features the beautiful Sydney Opera House and Harbour Bridge. On Saturday we also toured the city via bus and went to such iconic spots as Bondi beach where the beach-goers are packed in like sardines (including the oil!). The waves were amazing and the undertow was very strong; thus the reason so many lifeguards patrol the beach.
Sydney has many gorgeous attributes; it’s hard to describe them all. The various Syndey area neighborhoods we drove past had all kinds of wonderful cafes, restaurants, bars, shops, houses and gardens. We’ve never seen so many exotic flowers that grow seemingly everywhere. The architecture runs the gamut: from New Orleans style ornate iron gates, to skinny houses built close together, like the ones you find in San Francisco, to Miami-like art deco mansions that perch high on the hill. Prices range from hundreds of thousands of Aussie dollars to multi-million dollar spreads.
We also toured the harbour via catamaran and lunched on poached salmon, steamed prawns, cracked crab, etc. Most amazing are the number of sailboats and other watercraft on the water. Literally, dozens and dozens of boats vie for precious space at any moment. We saw a couple of near misses.
In the evening Deborah and fellow travelers dined at the Summit Restaurant, which is located on the 47th floor at Australia Square. (Chuck spent the evening on his own.) Like Toronto’s CN Tower, the Summit turns a complete 360 every 75 minutes, so you get to see the entire city while ‘spinning’ and dining. (Btw, Deborah had spoken to her husband, Bob McWhirter, who is keeping the home fires burning and taking care of their son, Sam, via telephone the night before. Bob reported that the weather in Toronto was drifting in the single-digit range, with sleet and snow warnings. Sydney was hovering in the mid-30s with brilliant sun and not a cloud in the sky.)
Sunday was overcast, but that was fine as we were given a ‘day off’ from touring and could do as we pleased. The cooler weather was a welcome relief. After a very tasty breakfast, Chuck and Deborah met Chuck’s friend for lunch (more food) and a visit. As you may be aware, Chuck is a vegetarian, whereas his buddy hates vegetables and prefers to chomp on stuff that has clucked, mooed or bleated at some point in their short lives. These two are Australia’s and Canada’s answer to Oscar and Felix!
While we had the opportunity to go to dinner with our fellow travelers, Deborah and Chuck opted out for a quiet evening and a chance to get packed in advance of our Monday flight to Ayers Rock, 1,354 miles to the northwest of Sydney.
…A brief interlude before we tell you about our stay in New Zealand…
Chuck reported to Deborah as they were boarding the bus to the Auckland airport en route to Sydney, Australia, that his site had “thousands of hits since our first blog was posted about our round-the-world trip”. Apparently, many readers marveled at the quality of writing and couldn’t believe that Chuck had penned such prose being the ‘quant’ left-brainer that he is…and they were right! Little does everyone know that Chuck ‘hired’ a ghost writer – a.k.a Deborah (ok, he wrote the Tahiti stuff for the most part…).
…now back to New Zealand…
Following a 6-hour flight, our plane arrived in Auckland, New Zealand – a mere 2.544 miles from Tahiti.
Everyone in our tour group seemed to breathe a sigh of relief upon arriving in New Zealand…there’s something to be said about being in a place whose residents speak your language and the food is more familiar.
New Zealand is a beautiful place. Very lush and reminiscent of many places… like the Scottish Highlands, Wales, Ireland, parts of Canada, and even Italy. We stayed overnight in Auckland at the Stamford Plaza, a refurbished hotel in the heart of the city. The problem was, the “refurbishing” was still under way and many of our group had rooms without heat – including Chuck and Deborah. The big difference was, however, that while Chuck was shivering in his suite (he reports that he slept in the hotel room’s bath-robe) – Deborah stormed the front desk and asked for a new room WITH heat…in large part due to the fact the Deborah was feeling under the weather and needed a warm place to sleep.
After a lot of ‘back and forth’ Deborah secured a room whoseith a temperature above freezing, which allowed for a much more comfortable rest in advance of the next day’s foray to Rotorua.
Rotorua is the heartland of New Zealand’s Maori culture. The Te Arawa people of Rotorua were some of New Zealand’s first residents more than 600 years ago. However, the Maori were the first inhabitants of the district. Today the Maori community is mostly urban. There are approximately 35 “marae” – meeting grounds in the district, out of which 20 are located in rural areas.
Surrounding Rotorua are geothermal sites, Ohinemutu and Whakarewarewa. We visited the “Lady Knox-Geyser Te Puia Whakarewarewa – the geothermal valley art and crafts institute, and the Agrodome Farm Show.
The Farm show proved to be huge fun. We were treated to an array of bucolic activities and sites, including sheep herding, sheep shearing and feeding new-born lambs. We also saw the dexterity of the New Zealand’s amazing sheep-herding slane lamb.
Earlier in the day we visited caves that are home to “glow worms” which are brightly lit larvae that attach themselves to the caves by long threadlike fibers. We were taken by boat in complete darkness so that we could see the amazing glow worms that dot the ceiling of the caves. We also got to see a spectacular array of indigenous animals, including the Kiwi, which is a rather unusual looking bird because it doesn’t fly, hops around, has a long beak and is extremely timid. In fact, it prefers very dark spaces. There are two very unfortunate things about the Kiwi in Deborah’s opinion: 1, it has many predators because of the fact that it doesn’t fly; and 2, its females lay eggs that are almost two-thirds their own size…meaning, it would be like a human female giving birth to a three-year-old. Deborah wondered why the Kiwi females didn’t also have crossed eyes, too, because popping out one of those eggs must be quite the experience!
We also stopped for lunch at a wonderful dairy farm where we literally feasted on roast legs of lamb, roasted root vegetables, wine and beer. Speaking of which, the food on this trip has been good and plentiful. Fortunately, we figure we haven’t gained any weight, in large part due to our discipline of not going for seconds and thirds at the “trough”.
Ah Tahiti! The blue ocean, the lagoons, the waterfalls….
But then Tahiti or French Polynesia has its drawbacks: people speak French here and close everything on weekends. Not that we have anything against French – some of our best friends are French. Just that I (i.e. Chuck) have difficulty speaking French. [Note from Deborah…Deborah is bilingual, and becomes more fluent in “le francais” as she drinks wine.] As for the weekend closing, it might not have been such a great deal except for the fact we were there on the weekend.
And now for those who need some serious information: Tahiti and Her Islands have three time zones (greedy, aren’t they?). The country spans 5 million (Yes, FIVE MILLION) square kilometers with a population of just 245,000 (greedy, aren’t they?) mostly Christian and have as many as 120 islands (greedy, aren’t they?). In fact, they think every country is an island. The entertainers greeted us people “From the island of Canada!” And, believe it or not, Tahiti has many Mormons, although we are not sure if they practice polygamy openly.
Remember the Mutiny on the Bounty and Captain Bligh? It all happened here.
The first day Deborah and Chuck bought some gifts, before they closed everything for the weekend (at 12 noon on Saturday).
While Deborah lounged around the pool, Chuck decided to explore the island. He saw sharks in the aquarium, waterfalls in the mountains, but no Gauguin paintings in the Gauguin museum (which for some reason, they seem to call Gauguin Musee). Yes folks Gauguin loved Tahiti, he lived here and, alas, died here at an early age of 55.
Tahiti is nice, but too commercialized. I (Chuck) may come back here, but not so keen. Deborah agrees that Tahiti, while scenic, is not worth the very long flight and expense the island requires
Easter Island…A spectacular surprise awaits...
Easter Island is in the same time zone as US Mountain Standard Time. Chile, however, adjusted time so there is less difference between island time and mainland time. This puts the island behind Chile by 2 hours.
Easter Island reminded Deborah of Ireland. The landscape is lush and green. Wild horses roam the land. Unlike Ireland, Easter Island is over 2,000 miles from the nearest population center (Tahiti and Chile).
Resting on volcanic rock in the South Pacific, it is known for the giant stone monoliths known as Moai. The early settlers called the island ‘Te Pito O te Henua’ -- the “navel of the world”.
Admiral Roggeveen, who arrived on the island on Easter day in 1722, named it ‘Easter Island’.
Our ‘Blue’ group, upon arrival at the airport, decided that a ‘hostile takeover’ of the other groups – Green and Red – might be in order to secure ‘appealing’ accommodations. (To put it politely, our stay in the Galapagos had mixed hotel accommodations – i.e. no hot water, no TV, no headboards, no locks on the door, dripping water from the ceiling…and so on.) Thankfully, the ‘coup’ wasn’t necessary. Our ‘home’ on the island was the Iorana Hotel, a wonderfully comfortable place. Everyone agreed that this was a welcome place to rest our very weary heads.
However, our first stop was not the hotel. Directly from the airport our bus took us to the Ceremonial site of Tahai, which also featured an amazing ‘cocktail party’ under a tent with lit torches and music provided by Rapa Nui musicians.
Chuck and I bought some gorgeous native jewelry before we headed into the party tent.
On Friday October 6 we departed for an island tour, the highlight of which was a drive to the beach of Anakena where we visited Ahu Nau and enjoyed an amazing BBQ lunch with a wonderful performance by Polynesian singers and dancers. Chuck and Deborah participated in the dances…but we were told to stick with our day jobs as we didn’t quite make the cut.
The late afternoon was spent visiting Ahu Tongariki and Rano Raraku where many of the carvings from the mountains are found.
At dinnertime, Elveira Mueller, our ever-energetic tour leader, and Deborah decided that it was appropriate to ‘borrow’ some flowers from the hotel garden in order for all the female attendees of the dinner to wear in their hair….
The next day brought more adventure – Tahiti!
Easter Island…A spectacular surprise awaits...
Easter Island is in the same time zone as US Mountain Standard Time. Chile, however, adjusted time so there is less difference between island time and mainland time. This puts the island behind Chile by 2 hours.
Easter Island reminded Deborah of Ireland. The landscape is lush and green. Wild horses roam the land. Unlike Ireland, Easter Island is over 2,000 miles from the nearest population center (Tahiti and Chile).
Resting on volcanic rock in the South Pacific, it is known for the giant stone monoliths known as Moai. The early settlers called the island ‘Te Pito O te Henua’ -- the “navel of the world”.
Admiral Roggeveen, who arrived on the island on Easter day in 1722, named it ‘Easter Island’.
Our ‘Blue’ group, upon arrival at the airport, decided that a ‘hostile takeover’ of the other groups – Green and Red – might be in order to secure ‘appealing’ accommodations. (To put it politely, our stay in the Galapagos had mixed hotel accommodations – i.e. no hot water, no TV, no headboards, no locks on the door, dripping water from the ceiling…and so on.) Thankfully, the ‘coup’ wasn’t necessary. Our ‘home’ on the island was the Iorana Hotel, a wonderfully comfortable place. Everyone agreed that this was a welcome place to rest our very weary heads.
However, our first stop was not the hotel. Directly from the airport our bus took us to the Ceremonial site of Tahai, which also featured an amazing ‘cocktail party’ under a tent with lit torches and music provided by Rapa Nui musicians.
Chuck and I bought some gorgeous native jewelry before we headed into the party tent.
On Friday October 6 we departed for an island tour, the highlight of which was a drive to the beach of Anakena where we visited Ahu Nau and enjoyed an amazing BBQ lunch with a wonderful performance by Polynesian singers and dancers. Chuck and Deborah participated in the dances…but we were told to stick with our day jobs as we didn’t quite make the cut.
The late afternoon was spent visiting Ahu Tongariki and Rano Raraku where many of the carvings from the mountains are found.
At dinnertime, Elveira Mueller, our ever-energetic tour leader, and Deborah decided that it was appropriate to ‘borrow’ some flowers from the hotel garden in order for all the female attendees of the dinner to wear in their hair….
The next day brought more adventure – Tahiti!
Sunday, 8 Oct 2006
Monday October 2, 2006
John Dallas, our limo driver, stopped by Deborah’s house at 7:10 a.m., and husband Bob McWhirter and son Sam were there to see Deborah off. At 7:20 Deborah and John arrived at Chuck’s condo at King and Yonge where Nancy saw them off.
Our ‘trip of a lifetime’ was officially under way!
We took the Gardiner Expressway to the airport – Skyservice Esso Avitat is the private airport that celebrities like Mick Jagger use to park their private jets when visiting
Toronto. Upon arrival there we were greeted by Travel Guild Inc. representatives who organized our luggage and showed us into the waiting area. Everyone was upbeat. Many Deborah worked together on a project with Versus people had been on other Travel Guild excursions or similar group trips. This was the first occasion for Chuck and Deborah to travel ‘en masse’.
You normally don’t expect to run into people you know on a trip of this kind, but Deborah noticed Mare and Morgan McCague milling about in the crowd. Morgan and Deborah worked on a project together at Versus Technologies several years ago, so it was a happy surprise to see them again. Morgan retired earlier this year from his senior fund management position at Teacher’s Pension Plan.
We boarded the plane at around 10;00 a.m. and were bound for Baltra, an island which is part of the Galapagos island chain. For security and county flight regulation reasons, we had to first land in Ecuador, which added another couple of hours to our excursion. Any frustration felt by us and our travel companions was eased by our flight crew who were amazing. They are an attractive bunch from Air Iceland, and include a half dozen flight attendants, three pilots and a mechanic. We flew a 757 outfitted with Rolls Royce engines. The crew and sturdy aircraft made us feel safe, protected and happy.
Arriving in the Galapagos
The distance from Toronto to Galapagos is 3108 miles. The Islands are on Central Standard Time and the natives speak Spanish (native) and English. The Galapagos are an archipelago of several volcanic islands located in the Pacific Ocean about 650 miles west of Ecuador.
The ‘Ninfi Hotel’ where we stayed was, to put it politely, rustic. The tour group was divided into three groups, Red, Blue and Green – we were in the Blue Group, appropriately named because much of the time we spent at the Ninfi was in search of hot water. At least the warm climate meant taking a cold shower was bearable.
Fortunately, we didn’t spend a lot of time at the hotel and focused on enjoying the many amazing things the Galapagos offers.
October 3…the sightseeing begins…
After breakfast we headed to the Charles Darwin Research Center, a short walk from the Ninfi. The town is a mish-mash of mostly small, grim structures predominantly made from cement block, wood and plaster. It is not a pretty town, but the locals make up for the lack of physical attractiveness in their buildings. They are a friendly and hospitable people who take pride in their homeland and are devoted to protecting the environment.
We saw many species of animals at the Darwin Center, including several species of tortoise, iguana, crabs, and tropical birds. One tortoise we ‘met’ was ‘Lonesome Charlie’ who was born on Santa Cruz. He is the sole surviving tortoise of his species, which means that when Charlie buys the farm his species dies, unless the center can find others of his variety and can mate them. ‘Lonesome’ Charlie’s name is actually a misnomer, as he lives with two female tortoises, although not of his species. Charlie isn’t terribly romantic with his lady roommates and so no ‘new’ Charlies are expected to be born. It’s estimated that Charlie is about 80 years old, and he could live another 100+ years as tortoise have been widely documented to reach 200-250 years of age.
In the afternoon we took a bus to the higher land areas and saw many more varieties of tortoise, and an incredible array of vegetation. The island’s higher ground and rainier weather combines to create amazing plant life, including moss that grows high on the trees. We also visited ‘Los Gemelos’ (The Twins), the cinder cones of the island, which are massive holes in the shape of a cylinder. Millions of years ago as volcanic eruptions spewed blobs of lava, large pockets of air were formed. After the hot lava cooled, the air pockets remained, but were, in relative terms, fragile. As millenniums passed, the pockets finally collapsed under the weight of shifting land, which ultimately created the cinder cones. I tried to get Chuck to jump in as a human sacrifice but he wouldn’t comply – in keeping with his nature. This area is home to the Vermillion Flycatcher and the famous Darwin’s Finches (13 species). Throughout the day weather was overcast or rainy, although it never really poured for any extended time.
October 4…a sea voyage to remember…
The weather cooperated as we headed out for what would be a very memorable day. We traveled by bus then boat to North Seymour Island and Bachas Beach (Santa Cruz Island). This was truly an amazing day. We saw hammerhead sharks, seagulls, pelicans fishing, and frigate birds. Blue-footed boobies, the indigenous birds, known for their neon coloured blue feet greeted us, only to be outshined by the sea lions who took great pride in lolling along the shoreline’s hot rocks. One massive male sea lion commandeered the path from the boats to land – which prompted several dozen of us to start running like wildebeests chased by lions. Deborah decided that it would be prudent to stay away from the giant male as she didn’t want to end up being either 1) the sea lion’s lunch; or 2) join his harem. After an amazing tour of the ‘mini island’ and a fabulous lunch of local fish prepared by the boat crew, we headed to Bachas Beach, where Chuck met up with a bunch of pink flamingoes.
The beach was absolute perfection -- silky soft grains of sand that were so fine you could barely feel them underfoot. Similarly, the water was crystal clear in shades of turquoise, deep blue and moss green. No wonder Darwin couldn’t believe his eyes when he arrived in the Galapagos.
While Deborah snorkeled she nicked her eyebrow on coral as the undertow pushed her into it. Thankfully, the small amount of blood the cut produced didn’t attract any sharks.
Our guide had earlier brought us up to see the flamingos, all pink from their shrimp diet, and easily balancing on one foot as they rested.
We found leaving the island difficult because there was so much to take in. It is an amazing place few people get to experience, and we were the lucky few who got the chance.
Sunday, 1 Oct 2006
Tomorrow morning I'm leaving on my grand adventure. It is 10 pm and I'm almost packed. I'm leaving on a jet plane, don't know when I will be back again.