Sunday on Maui

Flo and I tried to go to Mass this morning, but we arrived when Mass was almost over.   The time on the website was incorrect!  So, we had coffee and did a little shopping in Paia, a really cute town right down the road.   We keep finding neat places.  Today we went to Keihi and Makena and saw some lava fields from an eruption in 1790.

Getting ready to head back to the mainland on Tuesday.

I took a few pictures of the treehouse!  It is in and above a grove of trees on a beautiful hill outside of Haiku.  It is an adult style treehouse!  Very nice!

Haleakala National Park

Flo and I had a wonderful drive to Haleakala National Park today.   It was amazing.  Driving a convertible definitely enhanced the drive up the mountain!  Here are some pictures.

Beautiful Maui!

Maui is everything they say it is.   So Beautiful and rugged, somewhat citified, and just amazing!   We are staying Ina home we booked through airbnb.  It is called the treehouse.  When we first arrived we were taken aback.  It does look like a tree house, and has a long flight of steps leading up to it.

The tree house is a 1000 square foot open concept home with windows everywhere, high ceilings, a great kitchen, and a view that does not stop.   What a great find.  Our landlord, John Dunbar, is a nice and interesting guy.    He shared his Thanksgiving Turkey and his friends with us yesterday.   What a great dinner!

We have been exploring the island.  We drove to Hana, saw lots of waterfalls, went to the beach, shopped, and generally had a good time.   Exploring here is fun, and we have a great. White Mustang convertible to drive around in.

Tomorrow,we hope to go to Haleakala (the National park with an old volcano.   Should be fun.   First we will stop at the flea market to look for our new friend Elena who sells tea there.

I will add lots of pictures here.  In varied order, a sunset from the Tree house, our Thanksgiving dinner, our car, then some beach scenes and waterfalls.     

Leaving Sydney

Our time has flown by.   After the wonderful wedding, we packed up our suitcases and came back into downtown Sydney to our nice apartment hotel for our last three days.    We are a little travel weary at this point, but we muster up the energy to go to the Zoo.    It made a nice afternoon.   We ate at the Thai restaurant by our hotel, and ran into two couples we had met on the cruise ship!  Small world, even in a big city like Sydney.  On Sunday, we took the train to the Blue Mountains.  It was over a hundred degrees!    Lots of people at the Blue Mountains and on the train.

On Tuesday we left for Hawaii, took a Jet Star Business Class flight (beware , it was not much for business class!).   Arrived in Maui ready to see Hawaii.   We picked up a lovely convertible (we are in Hawaii, after all), and took. Off.   First stops was Mama's Fish House for a spectacular lunch and a great view!      More coming soon!

Various New Zealand pictures.

When we were on the ship, a few things happened.   We stopped at a new place each day, which was fun at the beginning of the trip.  At the end, we had rough seas and had to be rerouted, so we were at sea for four days straight with no stops.   We never had good internet connections, so it was a challenge trying to keep the blog in order.   So, here goes with some out of order pictures!   Enjoy!

The first is a tug boat showing off for us when we were getting ready to dock in Wellington, NZ.  The next is coming into Wellington.  The next one is on a hike in Tauranga, NZ at our first stop in New Zealand.  The next two are taken as we left Auckland, NZ, and the last two are in Melbourne, AU.

Regrouping

I am regrouping (with myself) this afternoon.    We have been on the go for over five weeks.   It caught up with me today.   Flo and I took the train to the Blue Mountains, a two hour ride.    When I got off, the old motion sickness and the heat both hit me at the same time.   The temperature was 108 up there today!!!   And I had not totally recuperated from twelve days on the ship.  Anyway, I am learning lots of good things about myself for future travel!

So, I am chilled and cool right now in my hotel room.    It is quiet and it is good to be quiet!

I love Australia and New Zealand and hope to return some day.   If I have that chance, I will take more time to be in each place so there is time to really enjoy everything.   I have not had much chance to hike, and I have missed that.  It was too hot today, and I missed out on some good hiking.   The temperature will be a lot cooler tomorrow, but we are in Sydney for our last day and a half here. 

We will have lunch with Bill tomorrow.    We had so much fun at the wedding and the next two days.  We caught up with Bill, Erin, Shane, Michael and Casey, and met most of Michael Wilton's family.   At the wedding, we were reminded that what is important in life is our relationships and we had time to work on old and new ones.   Flo and I have definitely had time to work on ours these five weeks and it has been really good.  

Then off to Maui for a week, and a two day stop in LA to visit Don Carlisle before getting into New Bern in the evening on Dec.5.

Wedding and day after wedding pictures

Here are several wedding pictures and lots taken the next day at lunch.

The Wedding

I always love a wedding!   This one had really great significance because we built our whole trip around it.    And we were not disappointed.   We arrived in Watson Bay on Wednesday afternoon and found our nice hotel and checked in.    We had a late lunch then took a long walk along the cliffs and saw the gap, the station house, and the oldest lighthouse in Australia.  When we got back to the hotel, we ran into Erin and Michael, and met Michael's uncle David and cousins Ann and Bob.  It was good to see everyone and start meeting wedding guests and the bridal party.

Thursday was the big day.   Flo and I took off for a short bus trip to Bondi Junction for some last minute shopping.   Then it was time to get dressed for the wedding.    It was a beautiful outdoor wedding that was followed by a great reception that went on til midnight!    What fun.

Here are some pictures of the area around Watson's bay and some "Wednesday night sailing race" pictures.

On the road again!

We are in the Melbourne Airport.     Catching up on emails and blogging.  The Internet on the ship was really poor.   

Tomorrow is the wedding that our whole trip has been planned around.  We are excited.   When we get to Sydney we travel to Watson's Bay, the location of the wedding.   I have to pick up the wedding present in downtown Sydney, or the CBD (central business district).   We are trying to determine the best plan for that!

We had a really nice day in Melbourne yesterday.   It was great to be on  land.  We explored some of the city and spent most of your time in the Victoria Market, which included a wonderful traditional market, food stalls, and a huge flea market.    I said I was not going to do this, but I shopped.   I have so many granddaughter and great niece and nephew presents!   My suitcase is bulging and I need to buy a small one to put everything new in!

We also went to see the Cook Cottage, that was moved to Melbourne from England.    We put on some period clothes and had a few pictures taken.  The park where the cottage is was beautiful.    We stopped at Federation Park for a drink and to do some people watching before going back for our last night on the ship.

The best part of the ship was the nice people we met.   We had dinner and breakfast this morning with a couple from Toronto who are celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary this year. And there were so many others from all over the U.S., Scotland, the UK, Australia, and New Zealand.   

Here are some pictures: