Happy New Year! (Where are we?)

  

January 1, 2026

GREETINGS;

This is the end of 2025 and we have been on our trip for 4 months and 6 days! Our trip is halfway over as this year ends and the new year begins.

WHERE ARE WE? (Everyone’s favorite question)

We spent New Year’s Eve in Hamlyn Heights, Australia, just outside of Melbourne, on the south side of Australia. We picked this area for three days because we are planning to go to the “Twelve Apostles”—and before you get excited, this isn’t a religious pilgrimage, it’s the name of some cool iconic limestone sea stacks found along the Great Ocean Road.

So we are renting a car and driving out there. There is also a medieval theme park near here named Kryal’s Castle that looks like a lot of fun.

WHERE ARE WE GOING NEXT?

After the driving to see the Twelve Apostles, we will return to Melbourne for two nights, then train to Wagga Wagga for one night, then to Canberra, the capitol city, for two nights. Then we’ll train to Sydney for 4 nights before flying to New Zealand on Jan 12th.

WHAT WILL WE DO IN NEW ZEALAND? Jan 12, for 10 weeks.

See Hobbit Holes, of course (which are called Smials in the LOTR books). For the first month, we are borrowing a camper van, if all goes well, for a month and we’ll drive around the South Island. We will also go to Canterbury Faire down near Christchurch, an SCA event, for 9 days, Jan 19-27. We might even see some of the SCA folks we met in Australia there.

 

AFTER NEW ZEALAND

We’ll come back to Sydney and attend the Roweny Festival (April 8-14). Then we will return to Hawaii via an 18 day cruise, starting April 20th.

OUR TRIP SO FAR:

Where all did we go on our trip? 

HAWAII. 

We started in Hawaii for 8 nights, which was pretty low key. We had an Airbnb in a little town on the coast just near the beach.

ASIA

JAPAN, 

Sept. 3-17. We started in Tokyo, where we visited the National Museum of Tokyo ?@. Then we went on the train to Nagoya, where we met up with Laurel to visit the popular Studio Ghibli Themepark. They made some of my favorite animated films, such as Spirited Away, Warriors of the Wind, and Castle in the Sky. Then we went to Osaka for 4 days, then to Tokushima, the city where Laurel is living; and she showed us some Japanese folk dancing and took us to an Awa dance performance. Lastly, we went to Kagoshima where we visited Masashi, a friend from college.

 

 

SOUTH KOREA. 

Sept. 18-Oct. 1. We took the ferry to Busan, South Korea and stayed 4 nights there before taking the train north to Pyeontaek where we stayed with friends from Alaska, Erica and Alex. From there we visited Seoul (including the Palace), the Suwon Hwaseong Fortress, and the National Museum of Korea.

 

 

TAIPEI. 

We first went to Taipei, which used to be one of the most densely populated cities in the world (but I think it’s been passed up since I lived there in 1988-1990). It was fun to revisit Taiwan (I lived there for 18 months), unfortunately, I didn’t recognize any of the places I’d been to. We also went to Kaosiung and then to Hualien where our friend Wendy @ showed us around the entire area for a day.

 

VIETNAM. 

We originally didn’t plan to go to Vietnam, but we heard a lot of good things about it, how it was starting to replace Thailand as a popular and inexpensive tourist spot. We went to Hanoi and then to Da Nang before flying out to Thailand.

 

THAILAND.  

 

We said we would get a lot of Thai massages, but only got like 3 while we were there. We started in Bangkok, on Khaosang Road. We didn’t do as much as we’d hoped there, because I got sick and then the Queen Mother passed away and they closed the museum, Palace grounds and other places. Later we flew to Phuket in the middle of Thailand, a popular resort area. We tried swimming at the beach, but the water was not very clean and had an oily sheen to it. So, we mostly ate out and walked around looking at shops and got a few Thai massages.

SINGAPORE. 

We spent a week in Singapore and had no idea what to expect, but to our surprise it was very modern, maybe more modern than some US cities. They had a great subway system. English was a main language and (finally) you could drink the water. Both Vietnam and Thailand had water that was undrinkable (and I got sick while in those countries). In Singapore, I recovered and felt better. They had some amazing places, including the @ Gardens and @Park

AUSTRALIA.

We landed in Perth on November 11th, where we met some SCA folks at an event, and then again on a Scribal night. We also happened upon a museum display of the Terracotta Warriors, which I really loved! (Did not expect to see that in Australia). We flew to Hobart in Tasmania and went to the top of Mount Wellington, but it was very foggy up there. Then a couchsurfing friend took us to Bruny Island for a day, which was marvelous. We also rented a car and drove to Port Arthur to see the old prison.

Then we flew to Brisbane.

What was our favorite place?

What are we most looking forward to in New Zealand.

Kuranda Scenic Railway

 

KURANDA SCENIC RAILWAY

One of the big spots to go from Cairns is a trip to Kuranda. They have a scenic railway that goes up a canyon to the small town of Kuranda, leaving from Cairns Central. They also have a Skyrail tram that goes to and from Smithfield. You can take either round trip or combine them. Both cost a bit of money.

There is also a public bus that goes up there for 7 AUS each way, which is much more affordable but probably not as scenic. At first, we thought to take this but changed our minds at the last minute and hopped on the Kuranda Scenic Railway, which was nearby.

Their webpage describes it like this: “Far North Queensland’s Wet Tropics World Heritage Area are among the oldest rainforests on earth. Thousands of species of plants and hundreds of unique creatures inhabit this lush green world. The famous Kuranda Scenic Railway winds its way on a journey from Gimuy (Cairns ) via Bubundji (Freshwater), to Ngunbay (Kuranda), the village in the rainforest. Rising from sea level to 327 metres, the journey to Kuranda passes spectacular waterfalls as it moves through the stunning Din Din (Barron Gorge).”

The old-fashioned railway was fun, and they explained a lot of the history of the area while we traveled.

KURANDA SOUVENIR SHOPS

In Kuranda, we got lunch and walked around. It’s small and touristy with lots of shops. The souvenirs were surprisingly affordable, compared to some places. 

You can also see Koala’s there, but we had done that in Cairns. So, I opted to go to the Butterfly Sanctuary. 

THE BUTTERFLY SANCTUARY

They have 1200 butterflies there, which they hatch and grow themselves. I walked through the butterfly dome. I had one butterfly land on my hand, even though I wasn’t trying. And later one landed on my 360 camera. Not sure if it will be visible.

Later, I tried to get butterflies to land on my hand, but they wouldn’t.

SKYRAIL

The Skyrail held up to 6 people in each car, but we rode by ourselves. The ride was quite long and covered quite a distance. We rode like 10 minutes, then got off and had a chance to walk to a lookout point, then rode 20 more minutes before having another stop.

At the second stop, the app for the Skyway would display a fake VR Cassowary for you to do a selfie with. Rather bizarre, but fun.

Skyrail, tram ride video, part 1(Youtube): https://youtu.be/Vz6xYtn8pcg?si=zrtEYWdj5NfBhx8z

Skyrail, tram ride video, part 2 (Youtube): https://youtu.be/jAD2gLuZOsc?si=nuqqpnS3aNTCHrvV

Khevron’s Skyrail video (Facebook): https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid02za2KMs4Z64iHMuV2jjiREwRbirDxYqQDsiKu19WiaETSL3qq57SFiFg7Hqbxyf6Gl&id=1218759563

At the end, we took the Skyrail back to town, Smithfield, and then we walked 30 minutes to the nearby mall, got dinner and caught the bus back to Halloway Beach, where we were staying.

OUR TRAVELS 

ON KHEVRON.COM

https://khevron.tripod.com/khevron/australasia/index.html

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Diving in the Great Barrier Reef!

 

We walked from our hostel to the dock on December 13th for our scuba diving and snorkeling expedition at the Great Barrier Reef with Diving Den. This was an all day tour from 8 am to 4 pm.

They took us on a boat out to near Green Island, a well-known area for diving. There were probably about 40 or 50 guests on the boat.

Khevron had once before gone scuba diving (37 years ago) and said he had difficulty remembering to breathe. 

Lareena had never done either before. We were excited and a little nervous to try it. We would only get one “introductory dive,” which is for people who are not certified (which we’re not). On that dive, an instructor is with you all the time and you aren’t allowed to use a camera. They do take photos which they will sell you, and we did buy a photo package. Frankly, I wouldn’t have wanted to bother with trying to use a camera while doing this first time. So most of the underwater photos here are theirs, though Khevron took some Gopro footage.

Since our group was second to dive, we got to try out the snorkeling first, which we can use our cameras for. I didn’t attempt using my Gopro, though I had it there, I left it on the deck. I think snorkeling was easier in ways than diving, but I did not attempt to dive down in the water, I just stayed on top and tried to keep the water out of the snorkel, which was hard.

Then came our time to dive. We put on a wetsuit (to ward off jellyfish) and the oxygen tank (which was very heavy) as well as some weights.

We went to the side of the ship and there they had ropes going into the water and we slowly pulled ourselves down while equalizing the pressure on our ears by trying to pop them. I’m not sure I was very good at this. I got a headache those first few minutes, though after awhile it felt better. 

Any attempt to swim by myself or kick my feet felt awkward and seems to make me run into the people next to me, partly because 3 of us were holding onto the diving guide’s arms.

I worked hard to remember to breathe and eventually relaxed and enjoyed the scenery of the reef and the fishes swimming around us.

We saw several reef sharks, which they have previously explained are not dangerous because they are scared of humans and will not approach. That was a pretty exciting sighting.

They took photos of us and after about 30 minutes we returned to the surface.

Khevron’s FB Album:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10242169513593836&type=3

We went snorkeling again and this time I did try my Gopro Max 360 camera underwater, but I was disappointed with the results. And it turns out that the lens and being so wide angle makes for bad blurry underwater video if you don’t have an extra external casing.

On the other hand, Khevron’s Gopro Hero videos were better.

Riding the Train in Queensland, Australia!

 In Queensland, Australia

Saturday, Dec 13

On Saturday, Dec 6th, we rode the train to Bundaberg.

IN BUNDABERG

There is a rum distillery in Bundaberg, but we didn’t do this because rum isn’t our favorite (port is my favorite).

From Bundaberg, we caught a bus out to Bargara, on the coast, just a 30 min ride. For 1$ ea AUD we got an all day bus pass.

We got off at Bargara Esplanade Turtle Park, with some hope of seeing Turtles. However, to really see Turtles we would have had to go to Mon Repos Turtle Center. The cost is just $10 each but there were two problems. 

First, they close at 2 pm and we figured we’d have more time. Second, the bus doesn’t go there so it would be a one hour walk. But it occurred to us that there wasn’t enough time anyway.

So, we walked around Esplanade Park (it had a turtle playground). We watched the rocky beach for turtles but didn’t see any. 

We entered the Great Sandy Marine Park, which takes up miles of the coast, but doesn’t seem to have an office (on that side) just some informational bulletin boards. 

It said that six of the seven types @ of turtles lived (or just nested) in the park. Also, it talked about the importance of the trees in providing abundant life for the turtles to eat. I’d hoped they’d have a little zoo or something, but I didn’t see that. 

Having missed out on turtles, we took a walk on the beach and I took my shoes off to wade in the cool water. 

Khevron’s fb post:

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid0zUE6XwFM1Gy9zxoeZ9b7wk55GsvesmPZxY3fbjtJ3yK3rKvaWFEADhPXKGptvMmnl&id=1218759563

We got ice cream cones before getting the bus back to Bundaberg.

Lareena bought a new charging battery. 

For dinner, Lareena had chicken udon noodles & water, from Noodles and Donburi (at the mall). And Khevron had a burger.

MOVING ON

December 8th

On Monday, Dec 8th, we rode the train to Bowen. This was an overnight train and had to sleeper berths to upgrade to, so we spent the night in Economy seats.  I don’t recommend this. It was crowded and around 5:30 am, someone in the seat in front of us got on the phone and talked for 20 mins. After that, everyone in the car was awake and there was lots of noise so we gave up sleeping after that. Got to Bowen by maybe at noon. 

TRAINS DO NOT ARRIVE ON TIME

We should have arrived at 7:43 am to Bowen but the train was terribly late (over 3 hours late when we caught it in Bundaberg). And traveling from Bowen to Cairns, we should have arrived at 5 pm but we didn’t get here until 6 pm.

BOWEN

Wednesday, December 10th

Buses and Horseshoe Bay

We had a simple plan to visit the beach at Horseshoe Bay, a short bus ride from town. However, this town only has 1 bus, with 4 routes. So it only goes that route 3 times a day and the last returns at 2 pm (WTF?). So we left around 9 and got back by 2:30 on the bus.

There was a short hike we did before the beach, the Cape Edgecumbe Walking Trail. It is short but has some good views overlooking the bay. The beach near there, Cove Beach, was pretty rocky and had a lot of possibly fossilized coral on the beach, tons of it.

We went back and walked down to Horseshoe Bay. I swam there on the beach, and it had a lot less shells and rocks, so it was fairly pleasant. There was a bathroom at the beach for changing.

Afterward, we got a pizza at the cafe there (Tropical Bar) that was pretty good, before catching the bus back.

For dinner, we went to Tastee Kebab and he had a wrap but I had lamb nachos, which was yummy (but too big!). 

TRAIN TO CAIRNS

December 11th

This train was only an hour late, but during the day. It was a long 9 hour ride and we got to Cairns around 6 pm and went to the nearby mall for food. Saturday we’ll go scuba diving!