Part 7, the end - Early - Mid July, 2024 – Queenstown, Auckland, New Zealand

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Queenstown

Hobbiton

Now we are on our own.  It’s quite different from the comradery we have been enjoying the past 10 days.  For the last time on this trip we do laundry, and pack camera gear and other items we will not need until we get back home.

Part 6 - Early July, 2024 – Fox Glacier, Mount Cook, New Zealand – Photography Workshop

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Fox Glacier

Fox Glacier cave

Today, our road takes us between two huge lakes, Lake Wanaka, the fourth and Lake Hawea, the ninth largest in New Zealand.  We are actually driving along the opposite end of Lake Wanaka from where we were shooting this morning.  Both lakes lie in their own glacial valley in the Southern Alps.

Part 5 - Late June, Early July, 2024 – Queenstown, Doubtful Sound, Wanaka, New Zealand – Photography Workshop

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Queenstown, South Island, New Zealand

Lake Wakatipu

Our last day in Australia starts with breakfast and an early ride to the airport for our flight to Queenstown, on the South Island of New Zealand.  We find out our flight is cancelled, instead of an Air New Zealand flight we are taking a Virgin Australia flight, arriving at 545 PM.  With no meal or snack.  The hotel is a 30-minute ride from the airport.  Another long day.

Part 4 - Mid - to - Late June, 2024 – Melbourne, Great Ocean Road, Australia

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Melbourne

Great Ocean Road

Approaching the luggage carousel, we find our driver waiting for us.  She takes one of our heavy bags, placing it in the trunk of the car like it weighs half of its actual weight.  Being spent from our travels to this point, I let her handle my bag too.  She is a wealth of information.  I furiously take notes on the phone for locations, and how to get there.  Temperatures are in the 50’s.  After registering at the hotel, and unpacking we are on a mission to find a pharmacy, for my cough, and a restaurant.  We are famished as we didn’t get any food on this flight.  We find both, the latter being a Greek restaurant.  A salad and platter of appetizers fills us for the evening.  We are in bed by 10, worn out for the day.

Part 3 - Mid-June, 2024 – Daintree Rainforest, Uluru/Ayers Rock, Australia

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Daintree Rainforest

Coral Sea sunrise

Our alarm wakes us at 5 allowing us time to catch a sunrise over the Coral Sea.  The Esplanade is filled with many people, causing us to dodge walkers, joggers, and dog-walkers.  We gaze at the golden sky over a glass-like sea.  It is cool, but no jacket is needed.

Early – Mid June, 2024 – Blue Mountains NP, Great Barrier Reef, Australia

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Katoomba and Blue Mountains National Park

The Blue Mountains showed up on one of my searches of Sydney.  It is roughly 63 miles ENE of Sydney.  Since we are not renting a vehicle this trip, we are using one of Sydney’s trains to transport us there.  We are traveling light, fitting only the necessary items into our backpacks, leaving the heavy stuff behind at our hotel.  We walk three blocks to a subway station that takes us to the central train station.  From there we board a longer distance train, transferring to the train that takes us to the town of Katoomba, our chosen destination to see the Blue Mountains.

Early June, 2024 – Trip Preparation; Sydney, Australia

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Background

Sydney Harbour Bridge and Opera House

Since December of 2022 we have been considering hiking to basecamp of Mount Everest, not the peak, basecamp.  Basecamp in itself is quite a trek.  But digging into it more and more we decided to put that trip on hold, possibly indefinitely.  About that time Gary Hart, landscape photographer from CA, announced his new photography workshops for 2024.  Among them is ‘2024 New Zealand Winter’, a 10-day workshop on New Zealand’s South Island.  Usually when I see the listing it is already filled, with a waiting list.  Not this time.  Nicida and I talk it over, then decide to send off a check for the deposit.  We are in.

April 8, 2024 – In the path of Totality

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Waiting...

I didn’t know it at the time, this posting started right around August 1^st, 2017, three weeks before the 2017 total eclipse over the United States.  It ended May 6, 2024, you are reading it now.

Before the 2017 total eclipse, the last time the contiguous United States experienced a total eclipse was June 8,
1918, I wasn’t around to see it.

2023 – Mid September – Ouray, CO; Black Canyon NP

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Molas Pass

Ouray

Waking to a cool clear morning, we head back into Durango for gas for the next part of our journey.  We stop at a farmer’s market for ‘Palisades’ peaches.  We happened across these a few years ago and are hooked.  We also find plums, crenshaw melons, and coffee; we are set to go.  The ride to Silverton turns into an adventure, first heavy rain, then sleet, enough to accumulate on the road.  The weather changes between rain and clear for the next 30 minutes before finally clearing, giving us dry pavement.  The road winds up and over mountain passes, dropping into valleys.  Passing Silverton, the mountains take on hues of gold, copper and cream.

2023 – Early September – Cinnamon Pass; Handies Peak; Durango, CO

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Molas Pass

Our 6 AM alarm wakes us, we are ready.  Opening the garage door, heat and humidity slaps our faces, yet another reminder of why we are leaving.  We will be gone only two weeks but will enjoy every minute.  As of September 6th, we have enjoyed/endured 62 days, 29 of them consecutive, 100°+ temperatures.

After breakfast we pack our essentials; clothing, laptops, and camera gear.  Food goes in last.  We stuck with our regular plan of cooking everything at home, only having to thaw, then heat our meals each evening.  Unfortunately, our camper doesn’t have a freezer big enough for all our meals, so some of our prepared meals stay home.  Don’t worry we won’t starve.