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.
