Rara Avis

The strange and ungainly bird you see here is a Takahe. It is indigenous to New Zealand and it’s critically endangered. The takahe was thought to have gone extinct in the late 19th century. But in 1948, they were discovered on the South Island. According to our guide, this is one of only 249.

It’s a flightless bird weighing about six pounds and standing about 20 inches tall. It is the largest member of the rail family. The takahe was almost wiped out by a combination of over-hunting, loss of habitat and the introduction of predators.

I took this picture on the island on Tiritiri Matangi, about a 45 minute boat ride from Auckland. It’s one of five off-shore islands were they’ve been relocated, and there are a few other places, as well.

Seeing such a rare bird in the wild is thrill; a real birding highlight of our trip to Australia and New Zealand.

Inverse Proportions

This is a sulphur-crested cockatoo, so named for the yellow crown of feathers on its head. For those of us here in the U.S., it’s an exotic bird. For people living in Australia—at least in all the parts we visited—it’s as common as a blue jay or mockingbird is to us.

That was impressed me most about this beautiful bird; just how common it was from Queensland down through South Australia. What impressed me almost as much was what I describe as its inverse proportions: how can such a lovely bird have such an ugly song? Cockatoos are as loud as crows. Maybe even a little louder. And their harsh, raspy squawks are decidedly unpleasant.

They’re also bold and curious birds. One dropped in on the front porch of a cabin on which I was eating my breakfast. It sat a a few feet from me, patiently waiting for a handout, but to no avail.

“Cheeky buggers,” said the cabin’s owner when I told him about it. He said they’re also quite destructive. They’ll chew the bark of trees, and even eat the wood on housing. He said that’s why he had all his cabins’ window casings made from metal. Cheeky, ideed.

Gannets

This is my favorite picture from our visit to a gannet colony last month just south of Napier, New Zealand.

We almost didn’t get to go there. Last summer when we were planning our trip to Australia and New Zealand, we had booked an excursion with a company that takes people along the beach and up to the gannet colony. But about two weeks before we were to go on the excursion, we heard there had been a landslide at the beach, effectively putting that tour group out of business for a while. We called them and they confirmed this bad news. But they also mentioned another tour group that took a different, overland route to the gannets. We called them and reserved our spots.

We rattled along narrow dirt roads in a bus filled about about a dozen other bird lovers, mostly Dutch. And once at our final destination, we were able to walk right up to our fine feathered friends and their babies.

These sea-going birds hatch and raise their chicks here. When the babies are ready to fledge, about a year after birth, they jump off this cliff and fly about 1200 miles to a spot in Australia. They spend a few seasons there, and eventually return to this spot to raise their own families.

We got as close as a few feet to some of these birds; they didn’t mind us at all. The only thing we minded was the smell. As they feed their young be regurgitating fish they’ve caught and eaten, well, enough about that.

Milestones

We hit two milestones today. One, this was our last full day of this marvelous vacation. Two, and much more important, this is Roslyn’s 65th birthday!

I checked my email this morning to find a receipt from Hertz. They got their car back and no further charges are owed. Case closed.

We spent a few hours this morning and afternoon with cousin Carol. We took the harbor ferry to Double Bay, one of the tonier suburbs, where we strolled around the shops and cafes and then had a nice lunch. Carol and her husband Victor will be in the U.S. this fall, and we hope to meet up with them then.

This evening, we celebrated Roslyn’s birthday by taking a dinner cruise around the harbor. We met a lovely couple from Utah, the food was pretty good, and the night time views were beautiful.

The cruise also had a pianist and singer/violinist performing one of the oddest sets we’ve heard since the Sweeney Sisters were on SNL. We especially liked hearing “Karma Chameleon,” followed by “My Boy Lollipop” followed by “Love was Made for Me and You.”

The dinner cruise was a fun way to end what has been a great trip. As Shakespeare wrote, “Our revels now are ended.” We’ve been away from home for 39 days now. We’ve met family we didn’t even know we had. We’ve encountered strangers who are now friends we’d be happy to host in our homes, should they ever visit Atlanta. We’ve walked 165 miles and driven more than 1,500. We’ve taken more than 3,000 pictures. And we’ve had a great time together. We’re very lucky, and we know it.

We started talking about taking this trip not long after we were married. We had been looking forward to it for so long, I was a little worried it couldn’t possibly meet my expectations. And yet it exceeded them. Truly our visit to Australia and New Zealand has been the stuff that dreams are made on. But now it’s time to go home.

Family in Sydney

A crazy start to the day. We woke at 4 to make sure we got to the airport in time to drop off our rental car, check in and be ready for our 7 a.m. flight. We were told the rental car office at the airport opened at 5. But they don’t. We got there, and there’s nobody. The sign on the kiosk says we should go into to the terminal to the Hertz desk. We go into the terminal and can’t find it. We ask security and they tell us there isn’t one. We go back to the kiosk to drop the key in the key drop. The key drop is sealed shut. So we leave the keys and the paperwork in the car, parked in a Hertz slot, and head for our gate.

Once there, I call our travel agency’s North American office, where it’s the middle of the afternoon. I tell them the story and ask them to deal with it. When we landed in Sydney, I had an email from the travel agency saying they had called Hertz at the Auckland airport and told them our story. They also told Hertz to email me confirmation when they checked in the car. I still haven’t received the email. So either Hertz has its car and everything is cool, or they don’t and there’s a big mess to clean up. I’ll keep you posted.

Here in Sydney, we met Roslyn’s cousin Barbara for lunch. Barbara is a second cousin Roslyn did not know she had until just before we came here. Their grandfathers were brothers, making Roslyn and Barbara second cousins. We had a lovely lunch at the art museum cafe, and really enjoyed getting to know each other.

Then later in the afternoon, we met Roslyn’s first cousin Warwick at the Opera House Bar for a drink. The Opera House Bar is an outdoor affair in a location you can probably work out on your own. From there, we hopped in a cab to East Sydney to get a bite to eat.

“Have you been in an Australian pub yet?” Warwick asked upon alighting from the cab. When we confessed that we had not, he marched us into a pub on the nearest corner. He and I had half-pints, and Roslyn had a club soda.

Then we walked up a block to a wonderful little Italian restaurant. Lots of really good food and lots of drink. Warwick ordered a bottle of wine for him and me, ordered grappa for us after the meal. I am undoubtedly over the legal limit as a type this. I wasn’t driving, so you don’t have to worry. Roslyn, on the other hand, is quite concerned I might be snoring tonight.

A View from the Top

We spent our last day in New Zealand climbing and enjoying the view from the top of Mt. Eden. Before you envision us emulating Sir Edmund Hillary, I should tell you that climbing Mt. Eden means walking up the paved pedestrian pathway from the parking lot to the summit about 600 feet above. In other words, it’s a nice, easy walk. And the view from this highest point in Auckland really is pretty cool.

Mt. Eden is what’s left of a volcano that last erupted about 1,500 years ago, according to the volcano scientists. I’m relying on their estimates because humans only came to New Zealand about 800 years ago. Most if not all of Auckland is in big trouble if it ever erupts again, but it had the good taste not to erupt today.

After our descent, we returned to our hotel. Because of our dinner plans and our 7 a.m. flight tomorrow, we decided to get showered and packed up this afternoon. And that’s what we did, all while watching the Oscar telecast live. You know how the hosts always mention the world-wide audience of hundreds of millions? I suspect it’s true. The ABC telecast was carried live here on New Zealand’s Channel 2. And it did not bleep out Spike Lee’s “mother-f#$%&r.” We had to leave right after Olivia Colman won Best Actress in order to meet cousins David, Anthea and Izzy for dinnner.

Dinner was lovely, and we said our goodbyes. Back at the hotel, I dropped off Roslyn while I went to the nearest gas station to fill up the rental car we’ll be dropping off in several hours. Gasoline here is expensive. It’s $2.16/litre here, which works out to almost $6.00/gallon in American dollars.

I will not miss that. I will not miss driving here; the other drivers are very aggressive and the streets and roads hardly have any straight stretches. And in the cities, streets are marked so cavalierly that they might as well not be marked at all. Even New Zealanders complain about it.

But the people are friendly and outgoing and a pleasure to be among. And it is so beautiful here. I don’t know when or if I’ll ever come back here, but I’ll be thrilled if I do.

Tomorrow we fly back to Sydney for our final two days of our trip. We have lunch plans with another of Roslyn’s cousins we’ve never met, and then I’m not sure what.

Culture Club

We had a lazy morning. No hurry getting going, big breakfast, then back to the room to connect with our cousins. Our plan was to visit the museum. They took a pass on that. It’s within walking distance of our hotel, and cool and rainy early morning had given way to a warm and sunny day. The museum sits atop a big hill, providing a great view of Auckland harbor. It’s really a beautiful city when the sun is shining.

The museum is impressive. The main floor is filled with Maori artifacts, the story of how the Maori came to New Zealand and how the British colonialists did them wrong and are now trying to make reparations. The upper two floors have other exhibits, including natural history and memorials to the wars in which New Zealand has fought. We spent three hours in the museum, then enjoyed the walk back to hotel.

David drove to pick us up at 5:45. We drove a little south of the city center to a temporary theater, The Pop-Up Globe. The theater company puts on several Shakespeare plays during the summer. We were there to see “Measure for Measure.”

The theater is set-up like the original Gobe was (if you don’t remember, watch “Shakespeare in Love” again). The production is The Bard’s play, but with many playful asides,ad libs, and even some songs and dances. It was thoroughly charming.

Tomorrow is our last day in Auckland and in New Zealand. We’ll hit the beach if the weather cooperates. Watch this space.

Family time in Auckland

We spent most of Friday at the home of Roslyn’s first cousin, David. He lives in an Auckland suburb with his wife Anthea and their 10 year old daughter Izzy. David had invited us to come in the afternoon, stay for Shabbos dinner with friends, and spend the night. We accepted. While it rained on and off during the afternoon, we caught up with David and Anthea and Roslyn also did a few loads of laundry. The dinner with five of their friends was delicious and fun..

We woke up a little after six to get an early start on the day. We needed to be at the main Auckland harbor to catch the 9 a.m. ferry for the 90 minute ride to Tiritiri Matangi island. The island is an open sanctuary for native New Zealand birds and reptiles. Everyone who arrives on the ferry is sorted out into small groups and led around by volunteer guides. We spent almost five hours there; the return ferry left at 3:30. If you ever come to Auckland, I recommend a day trip to Tiritiri.

Back at Auckland harbor, we went to the fish market for a dinner of fish and chips. Then it was time for our cousins to go home, and for us to retire to our hotel. Getting back should have taken only ten minutes—a left out of the parking deck, another left and then a right. No problem.

Except we couldn’t make the right turn because of road work. We had to turn left, away from our destination. Now we were in some trouble. Auckland street signs make it very easy to find your way around, provided you already know the entire street system by heart. And the map we had was as useful as a fucking ouija board. It took us almost 45 minutes, but we made it. Roslyn would have burned the map, but she didn’t want to waste a match.