Capetown, South Africa

First, apologies for the delay in posting! Internet has been a little less reliable lately, and sometimes even nonexistent. When it does exist, it's often metered, which makes uploading lots of photos a challenge. I'm going to try to get caught up as best I can, though I may only have internet (sort of) for the next two days and then possibly none for two weeks. We'll see what I can get done!.

Capetown is often described as one of the most beautiful places in the world to have a city. The views are stunning, absolutely, and the weather is lovely, and the ocean very blue. It's an incredible gateway to southern Africa.

The first time I ever visited Capetown was in 1999. It was my second trip to South Africa (the first was in 1997, not terribly long after the end of apartheid), and I was startled by the land of contrasts that it was then. There were tall buildings, beautiful homes, great restaurants -- and also shantytowns, and people who were homeless, and a lingering sense that all was not yet well.  More than a decade later, the country seems to have emerged from its rough patch and is moving steadily forward. Not that people don't have complaints about the way things are being run -- no government is perfect, after all.

Australia, part 2 (Cairns, Sydney, and the Hunter Valley)

We did so many amazing things in Cairns that I didn't even have time to fit them all into the last post! On our third full day in Cairns, we went on an evening safari. The safari started in late afternoon, and our guide surprised us by first turning into a nearby suburb. We soon realized why he'd taken us there: we saw hundreds of wallabies just hanging about in people's yards and in vacant lots.

Australia: Melbourne and Cairns (part 1)

Apologies for the length of time between posts - my mom came to Australia to travel with us for a couple of weeks, and we had so much fun that I didn't have much time to work on updating the blog.  This was actually our second time in Australia on the trip. We were here about a month earlier and spent most of our time driving around in the wine regions north of Melbourne. This time we started in Melbourne and stayed a few days.

Moorea and Tahiti

When you think of the South Pacific, one of the places you probably think about is Tahiti. It just sounds incredibly exotic, doesn't it? Tahiti. Like a place of incredible beauty and tradition and relaxation. And so, we decided we had to travel to Tahiti while we were in the area.      

The flight from New Zealand was around five hours long. The time change is only two hours, but since you cross the international date line, it's actually a 22 hour time difference. You arrive nearly a full day in the past, basically. 

New Zealand, part 3: Queenstown

The last place we visited in New Zealand was Queenstown, down at the bottom of the South Island. Queenstown is located in a stunning valley on the edge of a lake, surrounded by snow-capped mountains.

New Zealand, part 2 (Taupo to Wellington to Marlborough)

We left Taupo and drove south to Wellington, which took about 5 hours. It was a chilly day and we saw some snow on the ground along the way.  

New Zealand, part 1 (Auckland and Taupo)

New Zealand is a country I've always wanted to visit, so it was a must-see on this trip. We flew from Fiji to Auckland, the largest city in New Zealand, at the top of the North Island. Most of the flight was water, of course, but as we drew close to New Zealand we saw islands with sheer rocky cliffs dropping off into the ocean, topped with rolling hills of green grass. It was stunning from first sight.