October 31, 2014 - The Great Barrier Reef

Daily itinerary were:

• Boarded Sunlover Reed Cruise at 9:30AM
• Snorkeled at Moore Reef 
• Lunch on the outer reef activity pontoon
• Glass Bottom/Semi-submersible tours at Moore Reef
• Returned to Cairns around 5:30PM
• Shopped at Cairns Night Market
• Walked around the Esplanade Boardwalk

We got up earlier today to visit the Great Barrier Reef which is the main purpose of coming all the way from Sydney to Cairns.  Our tour was provided by the Sunlover Reef Cruises from 9:30AM to 5:30PM.  The Moore Reef on the Outer Barrier Reef was our destination for this day trip. It was about a 2 hours trip each way with short stop at the Fitzroy Island.  Some of our group members did have problem with seasickness caused by the ocean wave.

Once we got to the Moore Reef, the Sunlover Reef Cruises was connected to their spacious outer reef activity pontoon. They provided the snorkeling equipment free to allow us explore the awe-inspiring underwater spectacle of brilliantly colored corals and the unique marine species.  They also provided free glass bottom boat tour and semi-submersible tour. The also provided some optional tours for Seawalker Platform Helmet Dive, Scuba Dive, and guided Snorkel Safari.  The buffet lunch, coffee and tea made the trip pretty pleasant.

Once we got to the activity pontoon, all seasickness feeling went away, and we all suited up for the snorkeling. The water was very clear and pretty warm, therefore we could see a lot of magnificent corals at the bottom of the sea, and many tropical fishes swimming around us.  Some of the fishes even bumping into us while we were swimming along with them.  For me, this was definitely the best subsea experience I ever had.  After initial try of the snorkeling awesome experience, some of us went on to the glass bottom boat and semi-submersible tour.

In addition, they also held a fish feeding presentation and marine life lecture around a touch tank. They also allowed guests to touch many sea creatures.

After self provided dinner we went to the nearby night market again for more souvenir shopping.  Some of our group members brought more Lanolin Cream and UGG shoes. Some even bought Crocodile Dundee style hats.  Some of us walked to the Esplanade Boardwalk by the seaside to listen to some of the music played by local musicians.

November 1, 2014 - Royal Botanic Gardens, Philip Island for Little Penguins

Daily itinerary were:

• Flew and arrived Melbourne at 1:40PM
• 10 minutes tour in Royal Botanic Gardens
• Drove to Philip Island
• Chinese Dinner in Philip Island
• Watched little penguins returning from sea
• Drove back to Melbourne 
• Checked into Novotel Glen Waverley hotel 

We took the 9:20AM flight from Cairns to Melbourne and arrived Melbourne around 1:40PM.  Our regular tour guide Alicia did not show up instead we met a young travel office staff at the airport.  He took us directly to Royal Botanic Gardens to meet Alicia.  Later we found out Alicia was working with police and immigration officer on a defected case regarding one member of her previous tour group from mainland China.  Once we got to Royal Botanic Gardens, Alicia only gave us 10 minutes to see one spot of the 3,600 arecs internationally renowned botanical gardens.  It has been considered as Melbourne's inner-city oasis with more than 10,000 plant species from around the world.  It has sweeping lawns, tranquil lakes and majestic trees with an amazing range of wildlife. She told us that sometime we may be able to spot black swans in the nearby lake. However, only 2 couples in our group walked faster enough into the garden and were able to spot a black swan family (parent and 3 babies).  

Then we were on a 2 1/2 hours bus ride to Philip Island to have dinner and then watch the little penguins.  The dinner was in a Chinese Restaurant with lobster.  Even with lobster for everyone, 6 dishes and soup for all was not enough for a 9 persons table. The lobster dinner was disappointing in comparing with the lobster we can get in Houston's restaurants.  

The communication of today's schedule was pretty bad.  We all knew that we need heavier jackets for tonight's penguins viewing, however they never told us that we would have to drive to Philip Island without stopping at hotel first.  We had to asked the bus driver to stop to fetch our heavier jackets by the roadside in a windy and raining weather.  In addition, the bus driver in Melbourne had a very bad attitude.  It made the 1st day in Melbourne a very bad one.

Prior to enter the Penguin Parade platform area to watch the little penguins returning from sea, additional delays were caused by one missing ticket (at fault of the local tour company) and trying to wait for some members who was already gone to the platform area.  In addition, Alicia gave us the wrong information regarding where we should sit to get a better view of the little penguins.  It did not help the situation with the rain and wind either.  We waited and waited, finally spotted few penguins coming in before other tourists stood up and blocked our view.  On the way back to the main building we did spot some little penguins which were very cute. In my opinion, the whole experience could be better arranged if we had a better tour guide with better instructions.  

November 2, 2014 - Great Ocean Road, The 12 Aposities

Daily itinerary were:

• Drove on the Great Ocean Road
• Stopped at Anglesea
• Stopped at Eastern View
• Lunch in Apollo Bay area
• The Twelve Apostles in Port Campbell National park
• Drove to Ballarat
• Checked into Ballarat Lodge
• Dinner at Ballarat Lodge 

We started early today to drive from Melbourne through Geelong and got onto the Great Ocean Road to visit the Twelve Apostles in Port Campbell National Park, then to Ballarat for lodging.

The Great Ocean Road is an Australian National Heritage listed 243KM stretch of road along the south-eastern coast of Australia between the victorian cities of Torquay and Allansford. It was built by returned soldiers between 1919 and 1932 and it was dedicated to soldiers killed during World War I. It is the world's longest war memorial and it is winding through varying terrain along the coast and providing access to several prominent landmarks, including the Twelve Apostles limestone stack formations.

Due to winding nature of this road, one has to drive very slow just like the car traveling in the East Taiwan highway.  The scenery is beautiful with the road hugs coastline affectionately known as the Surf Coast between Torquay and Cape Otway (near Great Otway National Park and Apollo Bay) and the Shipwreck Coast further west of Cape Otway, providing visibility of Bass Strait and the Southern Ocean.  The road traverses rainforests, as well as beaches and cliffs composed of limestone and sandstone which is susceptible to erosion.  We stopped at Anglesea for rest room break, Eastern View for photo opportunity, and Apollo Bay area for lunch.  When we got to Apollo Bay, the weather was a little bit on the cold side.  However, some of us still venture out to the park next to beach to have a picnic styled lunch and then walked to beach to enjoy the view of Bass Strait.

After lunch, we continued on the Great Ocean Road and arrived to Port Campbell National Park where the Twelve Apostles is located.  The Twelve Apostles is a collection of limestone stacks off the shore of the Port Campbell National Park.  The proximity to one another has made the site a popular tourist attraction.  Currently there are 8 apostles left but the name remains as the Twelve Apostles.  The apostles were formed by erosion caused by the harsh and extreme weather conditions from the Southern Ocean.   It gradually eroded the soft limestone to form caves in the cliffs, which then became arches, which in turn collapsed; leaving rock stacks up to 45 meters high.  Because of this erosion there are less than 10 remaining. On July 3, 2005, a 50-meter-tall stack collapsed, leaving eight remaining.  The rate of erosion at the base of the limestone pillars is approximately 2 cm per year.  Due to wave action, eroding the cliff face existing headlands are expected to become new limestone stacks in the future.

Most of us just walked to the paved boardwalk to view the spectacle limestone stacks. However Mike Yeh took one of the helicopter tour to view the Twelve Apostles from the top and from the ocean side.  He was the only one had a peek of another attraction - London Bridge.  The London Bridge was listed as one of the attractions we suppose to visit, however, Alicia claimed that we did not have enough time and skipped it.

November 3, 2014 - Ballarat, Drive back to Melbourne, then Flew to Christchurch

Daily itinerary were:

• Visited Sovereign Hill Gold Museum
• Visited Sovereign Hill Historical Park
• Lunch at Crown Casino
• National Gallery of Victoria
• Shrine of Remembrance
• St Patrick's Cathedral
• Melbourne Chinatown
• Flew and arrived Christchurch, New Zealand at 11:50PM
• Checked into The Elms Hotel

We had a relaxing breakfast and were able to wonder around the motel campground to enjoy the fresh air.  At the same time, we spotted a group of auto lovers lined up their antique cars in the parking lot.  It was a rare occasion that one would run into so many antique cars in a same place.  In addition, the owners of these cars were very friendly and even invited us to get onto their cars for photo.

The first tour attraction was the Sovereign Hill Historical Park.  It is an open air museum in suburb Golden Point of Ballarat.  It represents Ballarat's first ten years after the discovery of gold there in 1851 and it comprises over 60 historically recreated buildings with costumed staff and volunteers,  The creation is completed with antiques, artwork, books and papers, machinery, livestock and animals, carriages and devices all appropriate to the time.  Alicia missed the opening time and led us to there too early, therefore, she took us to the nearby Gold Museum to kill some time.  In addition to see the exhibitions, some of us ended up at gift shop buying souvenirs.  Quite a few of us bought beautiful glasswares featuring traditional motifs such as kangaroo, koala, and little penguins.

The time we were allocated in Sovereign Hill Historical Park was limited again.  We only had enough time to rush down the 2 main streets and took some photos.  One of the attraction is Gold Mine Tour which is 3 hours underground adventures into the world of 19th century mining, but we did not have the time.  It was a shame for driving this far and paying a lot of money for entrance tickets (regular ticket costs $78.50 AUD) and only spent about 30 minutes there.

After the short visit of Sovereign Hill, we rushed back to Melbourne to have lunch at Crown Casino which is one piece in a massive jigsaw of leisure, arts and recreation facilities on Southbank, Melbourne known as the Crown Entertainment Complex.

After lunch, we visited the National Gallery of Victoria and saw the only piece of the Van Gogh exhibition there.  With only 20 minutes, we didn't see much.  Next, Alicia took us to the Shrine of Remembrance and St Patrick's Cathedral.  We had about 10 minutes at each of these locations and then she took us to Chinatown.  We did not have much interests to see the Chinatown and we were not sure why she insisted to take us there.  Maybe it had to do with taking some of us to shop souvenirs at one of tax free shops owned by her friends.  Most of us did not go with her, however, for those who went with her did buy some souvenirs there.

Then she took us to the airport to catch a 6:35PM flight from Melbourne to Christchurch, New Zealand.  When we got to Christchurch, it was 11:50PM.  Everyone's temper was short when we did not see our tour guide Vivian at the airport when we arrived, and later boarded on a very small tour bus.  However, Vivian was pretty calm in explaining everything and the driver was pretty decent in loading our ample and heavy luggages quietly.

November 4, 2014 - KiwiRail, Arthur's Pass, Shantytown

Daily itinerary were:

• Boarded KiwiRail at 8:15AM
• Rode KiwiRail through Southern Alps
• Stopped at Arthur's Pass for photographing
• Arrived Greymouth Station at 10:55AM
• Lunch in Greymouth
• ShantyTown Heritage Park
• Dinner at Matheson Cafe Reflectionz
• Checked into Fox Glacier Hotel

This morning we got up earlier to board the KiwiRail train in Addington to take the TranzAlpine Scenic train tour from Christchurch to Greymouth.  The KiwiRail luxury train took us to across the fertile farmlands of the Canterbury Plains, to enjoy thrilling vistas over deep gorges, ice-fed Waimakarri River, and traverse the mighty Southern Alps with magnificent alpine landscape.

We drove through the Christchurch which is a beautiful town in the Canterbury region.  Christchurch is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand, and the country's 3rd most populous urban area.  It suffered through many earthquakes between 2010 and 2012, and the city is in a rebuild mode expecting 50,000 new houses in the Greater Christchurch area by 2028.  Between 9/4/2010 and 9/3/2012, there were 4,423 earthquakes above a magnitude 3.0 have been recorded in the Canterbury region.

The KiwiRail train has special designed seating configured in pairs around the table with non-tinted and non-reflective windows for photo taking.  They also have open air viewing carriage for further photo opportunities without glass at all.  Some of us stayed most of our time in the open air viewing carriage for taking pictures of the breathtaking scenery.  Vivian jokily told us that we should save some money by purchasing standing only tickets (we were not sit on our comfortable seat and just standing in the open air viewing carriage).  They also has GPS triggered audio commentary at-seat throughout the journey to provide tour guiding information.

The train stopped at the Arthur's Pass station to allow us to take some pictures with the ice-capped Southern Alps as backdrop.

After we got to Greymouth Station around 10:55AM, we took the bus ride to Greymouth for lunch.  Greymouth is the largest town in the west coast region in the South Island of New Zealand. The Greymouth urban area has an estimated population of 9,870 which is about 31% of the West Coast's inhabitants.  The town is located at the mouth of the Grey River on a narrow coastal plain close to the foot of the Southern Alps.  Maori had lived in Greymouth for considerable time before European settlement, and called the area Mawhera (for "wide spread river mouth") .  Greymouth has a history of coal and gold mining.  When the mining industry started to decline, forestry became a new staple industry.

There are variety of eateries for lunch in Greymouth.  Some of us chose to have self packed lunch on the seawall of the Grey River.  From the spot we could see the Cobden Bridge over the Grey River near its mouth.

After lunch we visited the nearby ShantyTown Heritage Park. It was constructed and opened in early 1970s.  It consists of 30 re-created historic buildings making up a 19th-century gold-mining town.  It is surrounded by native forest and is one of the top attractions in the region.   It has two main streets, a re-created narrow-gauge bush tram line that follows a 19th-century sawmill tram track, a "chinatown" area depicts the life and living environment of Chinese immigrant gold miners who had migrated to the West Coast in the 1860s from other gold fields in New Zealand as they ran dry, as well as directly from China. We also got an opportunity to pan for our own gold.  Most of us did get some small pieces of gold.

Then we went to Fox Glacier and had dinner at Matheson Cafe Reflectionnz.  It is a small cafe with spectacular view of the Mt Cook and Fox Glacier.  With large picture windows for us to view the magnificent Mt Cook, along with great meal (pumpkin soup, lamb and fish), it was the most remembered dinner we had on this whole trip.  While we were waiting for the dinner to be served, the weather had been changed from sunny to raining and hail.  It also had a beautiful rainbow displayed right in front of us between the gorgeous grassland and the ice-capped Mt Cook.  We all had to dash out to the patio for a lot of Kodak moments.

November 5, 2014 - Lake Matheson, National Park Mount Aspiring, Cromwell, Arrow Town

Daily itinerary were:

• Walked to Lake Matheson to see reflection of Fox Glacier and Mount Cook
• Stopped at Knight's Point for closer view of Fox Glacier
• Drove through Mount Cook National Park and Mount Aspiring National Park
• Stopped at the Neck to view Lake Hawea
• Lunch at Wanaka 
• Stopped at Cromwell for fruit 
• Stopped at Arrowtown
• Arrived Queenstown and dinner at Lake Side Palace Chinese Restaurant
• Checked into Copthorne Hotel & Resort

The first activity was to walk on the Lake Matheson Walking Tracks to Lake Matheson for the beautiful view of reflection of Fox Glacier and Mount Cook on the lake. It was early in the morning, the air was fresh and the trail was pretty quite; we felt so tranquilized with this walk.  It was the best walk we had on this whole trail. Vivian told us that people in New Zealand consider they have the freshest air due to the fresh air come from South Pole for them to breath in first, then it move to other parts of the world.  After the Lake Matheson walk, we sort of believing that statement.

We also stopped at Knight's Point to have a closer view of the Fox Glacier.

Then we left Mount Cook National Park area and drove toward Mount Aspiring National Park area.  On the way, we stopped at the Neck to view the beauty of the Lake Hawea. 

We stopped at Wanaka for lunch. Quite a few of us just ordered the lunch and took to the picnic area by the Lake Wanaka and enjoyed our lunch along with the beautiful lake view, nice sunny weather, and sea birds.

The way the New Zealand farmers raise their sheep, cows, deers and other animals is to let them grow naturally without much human intervention.  These animals are just wondering in the grassland and eating grass, and laying there rest under the sum.  With the grassland and animals, it forms a beautiful scene.  Wherever we drove, the green grassland, hilly terrain, relaxing animals are always paint a beautiful scene on either sides of the road. 

The next stop was Cromwell.  We stopped at Jones Family Fruit Stall on State Highway 6 in Cromwell to see the famous fruit store.  They have both fresh and dried fruit.  Quite a few of us bought dried cherries and blueberries.  Some of us also bought fresh pears and other fresh fruit.  They also has a beautiful garden at the back.  It provided nice Kodak moments for us.

Then we stopped at Arrowtown which is near the northside of Queenstown.  During the high point of the gold rush they had a population of over 7,000 and became the center of a larger municipality.  They have many well preserved buildings used by European and Chinese immigrants dating from the gold mining days of the town.  We stayed there a short time for just walking around and took a restroom break.

On the way to Queenstown, we passed by a river where we spotted Jet Boat activities.  It sure looked fun and it made us want to come back in the future to Queenstown to do the Jet Boat.  When we arrived Queenstown, it was dusk and we still have some time to kill before dinner,  therefore Vivian gave us about 1 hour free time to wonder around on the Mall Street near the waterfront of Lake Wakatipu. Manuka Honey spray was a popular item by our group. They sell it as a therapeutic anit-bacterial item. With some of us coughing after days of fatigue, it became a popular item to purchase.  Some of us also walked down to the lakeside of Wakatipu to enjoy the scenery.

We had dinner at the Lakeside Palace Chinese Restaurant.  Only one couple had pre-ordered $95 AUD lobster as additional dish for their dinner.  However, the rest of us rather to have lobster in Houston Chinatown's restaurant for $19.95 (2 lobsters).