Day 11: Rangitoto Island

Auckland occupies an isthmus of land between the Tasman Sea and the Hauraki Gulf. They call it the City of Sails.

We started the day with McDonald's "Big Kiwi Breakfast". It's a lot like the American version, except it substitutes two bland sausage links instead of spicy patties, and an English muffin instead of a biscuit.

A few miles offshore in the Hauraki Gulf lies Rangitoto Island. It was formed by a volcano about 600 years ago. Today we will climb it.

It was very windy and a little cold on the ferry. I was happy I'd bought this jacket in Cairns.

The island is shaped liked a fried egg, sunny side up. It's a gentle climb up to a point, and then it gets increasingly steep.

Here's the easy part. The grade is smooth and the slope is manageable.

It wasn't easy for long. Rocks, roots, and eroded spots all contributed to the uneven footing. Ma did very well, though.

There were spray painted markings every so often which indicated that they were going to smooth it out. This one was my favorite. Can you read it? Sounds like they weren't afraid to use explosives.


There are still areas of the island which are nothing more than a lava field. The volcano has been dormant for centuries, but you never know when it will blow again.

The island has some unusual plant life thanks to the absence of most animal life. But the delicate plants were nearly wiped out by the introduction of the opossum by the Europeans. In the 1990s, the Department of Conservation succeeded in eradicating most of the destructive forces on the island. The native plant species have returned, such as this white fern.

...and this fern tree.

This is where the "yolk" of the fried egg started. It proved to be a bit too steep for Ma, so I continued to the summit alone.

At the summit. See the spire in the distance? This is the Sky Tower, about a block from our hotel.

Day 10: To New Zealand

We had a very early flight out of Cairns. The cab picked it us up at 4:30am. We flew first to Sydney, and then to Auckland.

Travelers' tip: If you're connecting from a domestic flight to an international flight at Sydney's airport, you'll need to transfer to another terminal. If you're traveling on Virgin Blue, you can catch the transfer bus at gate 37. If you're switching carriers between flights (e.g. Qantas domestic to Virgin Blue international), you'll have to pay $5 to ride the metro to the other terminal.

When we arrived in Auckland, our first step was to get through "Quarantine and Customs". They take this very seriously. New Zealand has been cut off from other land masses for millions of years. They have a fragile ecosystem. Invasive species could easily destroy it. They cannot risk foreign diseases spoiling their agricultural industry either. There was a customs official walking around near the baggage area. She was leading a cute little beagle on a leash. The beagle signaled to her mistress that Ma was carrying something suspicious. The woman was very nice and asked Ma if she was carrying anything edible. Ma replied that she had had an apple in her carry-on while on the plane, but that she had eaten it already. The woman rewarded the dog with a treat for being so perceptive. She inspected Ma's bags, marked her card as having passed inspection, and let us go on our way. That was one smart beagle!

We took the Airport Express bus from Auckland's airport to downtown Queen Street. Our hotel, Best Western The President, was around the corner and straight uphill on Victoria. Strangely, it is named after U.S. President Richard Nixon.

I could use many adjectives to describe the streets of Auckland. Hilly. Narrow. Congested. Chaotic. They weren't especially clean, but they weren't filthy either. Ma and I found the crosswalks particularly interesting. Traffic would get a red light in every direction. And then pedestrians would get the walk signal in all directions. You could cross one street, or you could cross two streets (diagonal). It was quite a sight to see.

Flecker Botanic Gardens #5

And non-plants...

This is a brush turkey. It digs in the flower beds, throwing the dirt behind it. Ma decided to get a close look at one, and it threw dirt at her. She let out a shriek and half tripped while scurrying away from its aim.

The botanic garden was home to several "mound builders". They are any species of bird which incubates its eggs by surrounding them with decomposing plant matter. I could use a bird that would turn my compost pile...

The garden was full of fearsome looking spiders. Australia is home to several deadly species.

Do you see the little gecko? They made a surprising racket in the underbrush.

Butterfly?

Butterfly?

Moth?

Dragonfly

Flecker Botanic Gardens #4

They had an orchid house on the grounds, too. This one was my favorite.

What spectacular color! I believe this is a bromeliad and some sort of grass.

This is probably some variety of cordyline.

Check out the roots on this tree. The bark starts several inches above ground.

There was a section of the garden that told the history of the earth beginning with the primordial soup and evolving into the rich and diverse planet we inhabit today. This tree represented the Jurassic period. It certainly looked like it belonged in a dinosaur movie.

Flecker Botanic Gardens #3

When Ma and I saw this fruit, we both said, "What the heck is that?!" It's called Backscratcher Ginger. Most species grow upright, but this one grew horizontal.

The striped bamboo stuff is called Costus stenophyllus.

In front of me, out of frame, is the cafe. Behind me, out of frame, is a tree that produced toxic sap. Directly behind me is a tree whose flowers smelled dreamy.

More sweet-smelling flowers on a tree. This was next to the bathrooms.

Here's the green flower I referred to earlier. "Strongylodon macrobotrys", common name "Jade Vine". Awesome color! They hung from the awning in the front of the bathrooms.

The pink area is actually part of the leaves. They are a variety of bromeliad, the same family as pineapples.

These plants also have a pink center, but these are flowers.

I love the contrasting colors. Pink, plum, gold. Lovely. I want this at my house!!!

Holy cow, look at the size of these leaves! Native to Thailand, I think.

Flecker Botanic Gardens #2

More plants...

These are the blossoms of the Cannonball Tree.

...and these are its fruit. Can you see how it got its name?

These looked like a bunch of giant yams hanging from a tree. I wouldn't want to be under one when it ripens and lets go.

This was called an Elephant Apple tree. Not to be confused with horse apples.

Wow. Jealous, boys?

I can picture slaves using these to fan a pharaoh whilst he floated down the Nile on his barge.

Pretty. Alpinia malaccense.

More burgundy satin leaves. This time, it's on the top side.

This one is called the Burity Palm. It's native to the Amazon rain forest.

Tarzan would have loved these.

Day 9: Flecker Botanic Gardens #1

On our second morning in Cairns we got on a city bus and headed for Flecker Botanic Gardens. It's one of the city's best kept secrets. The bus driver was very chatty.

Cairns is on the edge of a rain forest. Several miles north of the city, they've set aside several hectares to be kept wild and natural. Across the street, they established Flecker Botanic Gardens and populated it with exotic species from around the world. We focused our visit on the cultivated areas with excellent walking paths. If we had several days to explore, we could have walked up into the Mt Whitfield Conservation Park or even circled the Centenary Lakes.

Frequent visitors to my blog no doubt realize that I'm a bit of a plant enthusiast. I thought I took lots of underwater photos, but that's nothing compared to the volume of photos I took at Flecker!

The posts that follow will be much like the Great Barrier Reef posts. I'm mostly unsure what's in the picture. But I'll do my best to point out the stuff I know.

Peace lilies are common in Illinois...as houseplants. Here, they grew wild.

And they had purple ones, too!

Star-shaped and red. Like garden phlox, only better!

This is called Tahitian Ginger (Alpinia purpurata).

Snake Cactus. Native to Mexico.

There were several types of these trees, pink, melon, orange, etc. If I remember correctly, they smelled heavenly.

These looked like wax roses. They were so cool.

Very interesting shape.

There were several types of these plants, too. The flowers came in all sorts of colors, including a even a green one I'll show later! I believe they are all part of the Fabaceae or Leguminosae family. They share traits with peas and beans.

There is only one type of plant shown in this photo. The green leaf is the top side. The burgundy leaf is the bottom side. Even up close, you would swear it was satin.

I loved the graphic quality of so many of the leaves. I'm not an artist, but they made me want to paint a picture. I may still do that. Or, perhaps I'll just make a collage with zoomed-in versions of several photographs.