New Zealand 6 — Hobbiton and Te Papa Museum

Whenever we hear New Zealand, certain images, including sheep, wine, and Middle Earth (since the release of movies ‘The Hobbit’ and “The Lord of the Rings”) automatically come to mind. We are fans of the Hobbit movies, so we went to Middle Earth to see where Bilbo, Gandalf, and Gollum lived on the Hobbiton movie set. We were expecting a touristy, commercialized enterprise, but came away impressed with the quality of the experience, and would highly recommend it to Hobbit fans.

The setting in Matamata was selected by Peter Jackson, the movie director of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings trilogy epic fantasy adventures. Jackson flew over the Alexander farms property in 1998 and it reminded him of a slice of ancient England, complete with lake, and his team set about to carve out the Hobbit holes in the hillsides on a temporary-basis, using untreated lumber and traditional set making materials. To create the setting envisioned, some of the trees were brought in and planted full size, and some were artificially created, with each leaf individually hand painted to match the colors Jackson envisioned. The tour leaders were quite well trained and knew how to control the crowds, and the large number of tour groups were organized in a way that we did not feel the crowds.

There were 44 Hobbit Holes created for the movies (some are only facades). Two new homes have been added in December 2023 that fully furnished and available to visit inside. This initial movie set was not built to last, so homes and trails were rebuilt with more permanent materials for the tour. The surrounding area is untouched, with no power lines, no visible roads and no ancillary buildings other than the Inn, where we were offered cider or a beer. The site of the Shire is stunning.

For this tour, you get an opportunity to wander down the rambling paths of The Shire, see the Hobbit Holes in the rolling hillsides, and hear about some of the famous scenes in this 12-acre set. There were lots of Hobbit Holes created as part of the movie set, and the audience was asked to spot the homes of the bee keeper, the town drunk, and other characters in the village. The village was well made and well maintained, and in 2021, brought in $78 Million in revenue.

The interiors of two new Hobbit Holes were created on Bagshot Row, Venture Beyond the Doors, and opened in December, 2023. They are complete with scaled interiors, so people can enjoy how it would be to live inside a Hobbit home. Burt is reading a newspaper on the dining room table (middle left) and Evelyn is sitting at a desk overlooking the shire (middle right). The creators wanted people to touch and feel everything in the set. The hobbits were only 3 feet 6 inches tall, so the interiors have been scaled up to fit tourists. The tour groups were sized so that everyone had enough room for photographs without other tourists in the way, and welcomed everyone to sit or lay on the furniture, touch all the props and experience living in a Hobbit home.

We were told by our friends from Christchurch NOT to miss seeing the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa in Wellington. How right they were — this is one of the absolute finest museum displays we have ever experienced. Our favorite was exploring the award-winning exhibit: Gallipoli: The Scale of Our War. Te Papa joined forces with Weta Workshops, a special effects and props company, to create an exhibit like no other. From the moment we walked into the first display, our jaws dropped. It is that incredible.

Fought during World War 1 (1914 -18), Gallipoli was the first major amphibious operation. British and French troops landed on the Gallipoli peninsula in Ottoman Turkey with disastrous consequences for the Allies, which was directed by Winston Churchill. Churchill envisioned knocking Turkey out of the war to help the Russians, but the campaign failed. For the 16,000 Australians and New Zealanders who landed on that day, 2000 were killed or wounded. Overall, 27,000 French and 115,000 British and other troops were also killed or wounded.

The Gallipoli Campaign– “The battles fought by the Australian Imperial Force at Gallipoli are widely regarded as the foundation legend of Australian military history, and a potent symbol of federated Australia.” The dioramas were built over-sized, so you are enveloped into the scene. The detailed sculptures were so well done, that you could even seen tears from the nurse (right bottom).

There were many other wonderful displays at the Te Papa Museum, including the one on dinosaurs. We could easily have spent a day there.

New Zealand 5 – Christchurch 2 & Beyond

Our last supper in Christchurch was at Astro Lounge, a vintage beer garden, which was a 5-minute walk from our hotel in pouring rain. The poster (lower-right) is from one of Burt’s favorite Sci-Fi characters (Dr. Who).

It rained most of the time we were in New Zealand, even though we were starting summer. The average annual temperature is around 50 degrees Fahrenheit in South Island, but apparently we caught part of La Niña on this trip, so it was both wetter and colder than normal. Even many locals were complaining about the miserable weather.

The Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū has its own collection of art along with changing international exhibitions. One current exhibition that will end in April 2024 was  Spring Time is Heart-break: Contemporary Art in Aotearoa. The couple’s relationship mirrored the seasonal changes in the garden they tended together during a decade. Another exhibition was Perilous: Unheard Stories from the Collection about people’s stories, which Evelyn enjoyed seeing.

The Christchurch Art Gallery wows visitors as much for its architecture as for its artwork. (Right-top above and right-top below). The Gallery’s tall, wavy glass facade was inspired by Christchurch’s Avon River and the shape of the native koru fern. The Gallery showcases contemporary art, though it also has its traditional European collection. For the public, there is a “create your own art” made with gold sequins on one side and black color sequins on the other side. As you roll your fingers across it, you can create patterns. Here’s Evelyn’s creation (lower-right). There was both installation art and video art.

There is a weekly crafts show at the art center and here’s a few sculptures (middle row). There are still repairs being made after the damage from the 2011 earthquakes (Left top). You can also see trolley cars that take you around the city, plus a trail of public art that includes a collection of elephants (right bottom). Again, we wanted to thank our hostesses Faye and Ian who took us on a walking tour of the city and brought the city to life that only an insider can do (left bottom)..

After leaving Christchurch, we headed north to Blenheim, situated in the heart of wine-growing Marlborough the largest wine-producing region in New Zealand. Marlborough has 158 wineries in the district. Blenheim is internationally known for its Sauvignon Blanc. There are 290 grape growers of Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Riesling, Pinot Noir, Pinot Gris and Gewǔrztraminer. Blenheim is one of the sunniest towns in the country and a destination for foodies and wine lovers. Wither Hills is quite picturesque and Burt took his drone out to film the area. Later his drone was attacked by a bird nearby while videoing a herd of sheep.

New Zealand 4 – Christchurch 1 & Surroundings

We had the pleasure of exploring Akaroa, just outside of Christchurch, with our friends, Faye and Ian. We visited some of their favorite bars, enjoyed Blue Cod Fish and Chips, art galleries and another delightful place, The Giant’s House (above), an art gallery and garden filled with whimsical mosaic sculptures created by artist Josie Martin, who still lives there.

The mosaic artist and horticulturist, Josie Martin obviously had fun creating the garden. We all had fun posing with her sculptures.

Christchurch is a wonderful city, that has been rebuilding after the disastrous earthquake in February 2011. To this day, there are still unresolved insurance claims, so damage from the 6.2 and 6.3 magnitude quakes is still visible. Most of the city is relatively new. We saw the Bridge of Remembrance (lower-right), a war memorial dedicated to those who died in WW1, WW2, plus subsequent conflicts in Borneo, Korea, Malaysia and Vietnam. Throughout the town were e-scooters strewn haphazardly on sidewalks (center-right), and we found this throughout the big cities in New Zealand. We have read about the business before, but had not seen it in action. There were public art in the form of ceramic elephants (center-left), all designed by a variety of artists, throughout the central business district. The charm of Christchurch is shown with the retained old fashion red-color, pay telephone booths (center) that are still operable. The bridge (top-right) is a view from our hotel room in Launceston.

In Akaroa, we watched a working port loading wood logs from a coffee house that Ian and Faye loved. We then visited a wonderful art gallery next to the coffee stop, where some unique art is displayed.

We were impressed with the quality of the street art throughout the city of Christchurch. In fact, Christchurch is now ranked as one of the global street art capitals, ranked alongside New York, Barcelona, London, Berlin in the Lonely Planet book. After the 2011 Canterbury earthquake, many artists started painting the murals (born out of tragedy) to bring back color, joy and optimism and help rejuvenate the city.

Celebrating our 51st Anniversary in Christchurch, New Zealand at Soul Quarter, where they were playing jazz in the background while we ate dinner.

New Zealand 3 – Landscape Photo Tour 3

Glen Howey, our local guide, kept bringing us to new photogenic places in rapid succession. One late afternoon he brought us to the Glenorchy jetty on Lake Wakatipu and suggested it would be a good location for dramatic images. I was skeptical at first, and captured a standard photograph of the pier (lower-left) in late afternoon, and was not very impressed…

As dusk set, the light came on at both the start and end of the pier, and the image began to improve (lower-right). As full darkness fell, Glen offered to walk to the end of the pier and stand perfectly still while we took long exposure photographs. This was another time when his vision and experience helped us create an interesting image from a less-than-interesting location (top).

As we drove many hours each day in our bus, Glen would stop frequently at photographically interesting locations. This gave us a place to stretch both our legs and our imaging skills. Several of the stops were simply at the side of a road that stretched off into the distance to an interesting destination (left column). Other stops were near a small river that offered chances to stretch our camera skills (right column).

Being an island with 775 lakes and frequent rains, it is not surprising that many of the photographic stops relate to water. Sometimes the images required getting up at 4AM to capture them at sunrise. For sunset shots as the Pancake Rocks (lower left), we went over after dinner and stayed out until after sunset (around 9PM this far South), hoping again for “some color in the sky” as the sun lowered (upper-left and lower-right). Many other images were captured during the day, where the stormy skies offset the normal harsh glare of the sun (center row).

One of the times the sun refused to cooperate was at the Wanaka Tree (lower-right). This is probably the most photographed tree in New Zealand, but the wind whipped up, preventing the expected reflections. This was also a time that the weather played tricks on us. Instead of the cold, stormy weather of most of this tour, the sky turned clear…. so clear that there were no clouds in the sky to capture the vibrant sundown colors that we were hoping for…

On a landscape-oriented tour such as this, it is easy to focus only on the distant views of mountains, roads, and rivers. Sometimes it helps to look down though, and see the tiny images that we frequently just walk past. Flowers (lower-left), rocks (upper-left), leaves, and even simple patterns in the sand (lower-right) present their own images to remind us of where we traveled.

The west coast of the Southern Island of New Zealand is amazingly lush with densely packed forest. Some portions have tall trees where paths have been carved for hikers (left and right). Much of the island is so dense though, that is would be very hard for any person to manage to walk among them (center column).

Our last coffee stop before returning to Christchurch from the West Coast on December 16th was to visit Gollum (upper left). We found him perched on top of the old Otira Stagecoach Hotel. Gandalf (upper right) was also there to welcome us to this cafe/hotel with its collection of antiquities. It was a fitting last stop, since we have been traveling past many of the scenes where the Lord of the Rings was filmed.

This cafe held a fabulous collection of odd knick-knacks that just screamed to be played with and photographed. Oli, our bus driver and second local guide, grabbed some items and dressed as a Steampunk character (lower left). This photo was captured by Nina, another traveler in our group.

Oli was our bus driver on this trip, but has been leading other trips as a local guide in the area for many years. He provided a running monologue of interesting facts and history about each area we drove by. Between Glen and Oli, we were kept fascinated even on the long drives between our daily destinations.

On the last day of our tour, the weather began to improve. At one photographic stop that day, we all gathered for a group photo. Daniel Kordan was our primary photo tour leader, and sits in front. Other members shown are Jan, Hywel, Criz, Alan, Glen, Irina, Jurij, Evelyn, Burt, Mike,Nina, and Bill.

We had to prove that we were actually on this trip, so asked Glen Howey, our local guide, to photograph us together in front of one of the lakes where we were attempting to capture a sundown. You can tell from the clothes that we are wearing, just how cold it was there most of the time!

New Zealand 2 – Landscape Photo Tour 2

Sunrise on Aoraki/Mount Cook, which is home of the highest mountains and longest glaciers in the Southern Hemisphere. It is an impressive landmark in the Southern Alps at 12,218 feet. The mountain was formed by the collision of tetonic plates that uplifted to form the Alps. Aoraki is the Mäori name for Mount Cook, meaning cloud piercer.

Everyone who visits this area is seeking photos of Mount Cook. We loved finding this image of a road producing leading lines to Mount Cook. “Leading lines” is a compositional technique used to lead the viewer’s eyes to the heart of the image (top right).

We use an app on our iPhone called PeakFinder, which allows us to aim at any mountain, or series of mountains, and get both the names of each peak, along with its altitude. The lower-right image is a screen grab from the app while looking at a portion of the mountain range that Mt Cook sits on.

There was plenty of beautiful mountain scenery along the route. Though the stormy weather was not what we had hoped for at the start of the New Zealand summer, it did provide many dramatic storm cloud scenes for us to capture.

There are very few birds endemic to New Zealand. One such is the Kea though (upper-right). These rather comical birds were often seen around the parking lots when we pulled off the main road. They would walk around the people (we never saw one fly), and one even hopped onto our bus before being encouraged to leave. There are frequent “Do not feed the Kea” signs posted (lower-right), as the government tries to discourage the endangered birds from becoming too dependent on human handouts.

Bees are becoming harder to find as their worldwide populace is decimated. We discovered that lupins are a favorite source of food for the bees though, and we were able to capture this image of one hovering (upper-left). The lake area shown yesterday included numerous oyster catchers walking along the shore (middle-right), and various ducks were often seen walking up to check us out (lower-left). One of the oddball cafes shown yesterday had a boar mounted on the wall (middle-left), while another cafe had an interesting painting of sheep (middle), which New Zealand is famous for.

As already noted, the weather was mostly stormy and rather unpleasant during this entire tour. Glen Howey, our local photographic guide, frequently would point out a dull scene and exclaim how well it would work in Black & White! Though we were skeptical, we followed his advice and captured the scene as best we could, and then converted several to Black & White in post-processing. As you can see here, he was right in many cases, and we were able to turn drab lifeless images and give them life by removing the dull colors.

Glen was the eternal optimist, and kept us all looking to bring the best out of the expectedly poor weather.

Here are more moody black and white landscape photos, including scenes at Milford Sound, Arthur’s pass, and Glenorchy.

The end of our tour on December 16th was also the day of our 51st Anniversary.

New Zealand 1 – Landscape Photo Tour 1

New Zealand is photographically best known for its stunning landscapes. Many of the best locations are well off the beaten track though, and difficult to find when traveling solo. We therefore decided to include one more organized photo tour to finish 2023, and to introduce us to the grander landscape scenes in New Zealand. Our workshop was led by Daniel Kordan (with over 2 Million Instagram followers, he is rather famous) and our local guide, Glen Howey. Both were over-the-top fantastic photographers and superb guides. Though we spent our 12 days with them at the start of Summer, the weather did not cooperate, and we mostly had drab grey skies, with very little color or interesting cloud variations for the duration. This was coupled with almost constant strong cold winds that made us bundle up and destroyed any water reflections.

The standout exception to the drab skies was 10 minutes at Lake Matheson, shown above. To capture this image, we left the hotel at 4AM, drove for an hour, then hiked for 45 minutes. We did so after a week of drab sunrises and sunsets due to the poor weather, and thus we had minimal expectations.

As we arrived at this glacial lake, we were pleasantly surprised to find The Winning Photo of the Week! The wind had totally died, allowing the lake to act as a beautiful mirror. Above the lake were just enough clouds to add interest, and gorgeous sunrise light. We quickly set up our tripods and captured the scene as best we could. We were happy to have come so early, as this light lasted only 10 minutes, after which the scene clouded over again.

Most of our photography has been of people and cities. This New Zealand workshop was entirely landscapes, which put us outside our “comfort zone.” We have long wanted to come to New Zealand, and decided to celebrate our 51st wedding anniversary with something different.

This Workshop is only the third landscape tour we have taken. The first landscape workshop we attended was in Jasper, Canada, in 2010, before we started writing this travel blog. Our second landscape tour was in Iceland (nine blog posts starting here), which was organized by the same operator as the current New Zealand workshop (Iceland Photo Tours).

Though the weather did not cooperate during our workshop, both Daniel and Glen were able to find alternatives to photograph, as seen in the above block. Lupin is a flower that only blooms for two or three weeks each year around Lake Tekapo. We caught them in bloom, using the old church as a back drop.

We were able to find many places to photograph with a lot character enroute, including the coffee shop shown above. Glen knew every spot for possible photo stops along the way. Many times there were long drives between target locations, and Glen always knew of fascinating places along the way. These were mostly places we would have driven past without a thought, if we had been traveling alone. This is where the true benefit comes with traveling with a guide who has both deep local knowledge and a keen eye for photography.

Besides knowing just where to stop to break up a long drive and see interesting photographic topics, Glen was easily the most optimistic and enthusiastic guide we have met. He would frequently comment that “blue skies are wonderful for tourists, but boring for photographers,” and then help us compose an image to bring out the drama, including noting when a scene would look best in Black & White.

Above is one example of where we just saw drab skies, but Glen found the right location for some interesting images. While we were shooting, Daniel picked up a log from the hillside and placed it in the scene, showing us how it improved the composition (lower-left).

Milford Sound is a fjord in South Island near Queenstown, and one of the wettest places in the world. It rains more than 183 days a year, or more 50% of the time, with 252″ average rainfall. Our group was scheduled for a boat ride around the Sound at 4PM… which happened to also be when the forecast said another rain storm was due to start. Glen quickly changed our plans, so that we got there in time for a 2PM boat instead. Sure enough, that let complete the circuit of the Sound before the rain started.

One of the features of the boat tour was the many waterfalls around the periphery, as seen above. Boats would approach several falls for a close view (upper-left), and we did the same (upper-right and center). The wind was blowing so hard that many waterfalls never made it to the surface of the Sound, instead blowing into the wind partway down (lower-left).

Sure enough, the rain started at 4PM, just as we finished our ride, and just as we would have started, had Glen not swiveled and made the quick reservation change. We milled around the cafe of the dock for about half an hour before departing on the next leg of our bus drive. When we had driven into the Sound area a couple hours earlier, the surrounding hills were barren. To our amazement, after less than an hour of rain, those same hills were filled with dozens of waterfalls (lower-right). This really drove home the frequent warnings we had seen in the area of flash floods!

As mentioned in the opening paragraph, the sky had vibrant color at sunrise over Lake Matheson for only ten minutes. We close with a photograph taken ten minutes after that initial photograph, with the color already beginning to dissipate. Another five minutes after this image was taken, the horizon was a solid grey color, devoid of any color.

Thanks to the efforts of Daniel and Glen, we were there at the perfect moment. Landscape photography is always about chasing the light, and it is often fleeting.

Australia 2 – Melbourne 2

As part of our 3-hour long walking tour of Melbourne, we were introduced to the story of Chloe (right bottom). Chloé was painted in 1875 by a French painter, and was displayed at the National Gallery of Victoria. Chloé grew controversial when the painting started being exhibited on Sundays, when a local minister condemned it. The painting was then purchased by the owner of the bar at Young and Jackson Hotel, where it still hangs today.

During WW1, WW2, the Korean War and Vietnam War, soldiers wrote letters promising to return to her, and American soldiers even had a plot to abduct her. Chloé was then adopted as the mascot of the Royal Navy frigate HMAS Melbourne. It is one of the most popular paintings in the city, valued at $5M, and considered an icon of the city. Of course, we had to go see it (lower right). Melbourne is filled with beautiful and diverse architecture (top). And, there are lots of food choices in Melbourne including crocodile and kangaroo burgers, which we sampled (lower center).

We spent a few hours reviewing the art work from the NGV National Gallery of Victoria near the Royal Botanic Gardens (above). On display were paintings by Mark Rothko, Picasso (upper-left), and many others. A little boy was so enthralled with a display of High Fashion that he fell down (lower right). Our guide from Depot Adventures highly recommended seeing this gallery. The tour guides generally show us what and where, with their goal being to get us to come back and explore on our own, and we did come back to see this gallery.

Our walking tour took us to Federation Square, Collins Street shopping areas, street art lanes, old shopping districts, Chinatown, Flinders Street Railway Station, the sports stadiums (where they play the Australian Open), Symphony Halls, parks, and libraries. Flinders Railway Station is a well known meeting point to get together with others. It was even fascinating watching the window washers (lower right). We highly recommend taking a walking tour with locals whenever you’re in any new city.

We made a stop at San Remo for fish & chips enroute to Phillips Island. The fishing boats were quite intriguing. I have no clue how the lights are used and, I have never seen such colorful nets.

Phillip Island is 90 minutes from Melbourne and is where the Penguin Parade is located. Phillip Island is 14 miles long and 6 miles at its widest. The island is teeming with different kinds of wildlife, including the nesting ground of seagulls (bottom), fur seals, short tail shearwaters, wallabies, wombats, and possums, in addition to Little Penguins (shown yesterday). Echidnas (top right) are strange-looking animals that resemble anteaters, but look like a cross between a porcupine and a hedgehog.

Our hotel, the Lancemore Crossley St., is tucked between the theater district and Chinatown. We saw a live performance of Miss Saigon, just a block from our boutique hotel. There were several other theaters that had live performances at the same time. This is one of the few musicals we had not seen, and the lead characters were quite charismatic.

In the elevator of our hotel is a dramatic video art display designed by Roynae Mayers. It’s a real showstopper, causing us to actually miss our floor as we watched in fascination. The entire hotel was designed with local artists to create unexpected moments of delight. You find art, sculptures, dramatic lighting, grit and paintings in every room. We kept returning to the Chinese restaurant next door for its salt and pepper squid.

Australia 1 – Melbourne 1

Whenever we travel to a new city, we love going on walking tours. We love discovering the off-the-beaten-track places that only a local will know. We signed up for a fun 3-hour walking tour with Depot Adventures in Melbourne. We explored the cafe scene for coffee, hidden speak-easy bars, Aussie chocolates, art galleries, museums, great street art, Chinatown, the history and architecture of the city. We learned how Tasmania was discovered and got its name, then finished with a beer at a local tavern. Melbourne is a dream for people who love urban design. There is a whole network of wide streets adjacent to hidden art-filled lanes, some decorated with elaborate street art. There is even Banksy art in Melbourne.

After the walking tour, we went back to view the famous painting of the nude named Chloe at the prestigious Young and Jackson Hotel Bar after hearing her story from our local guide. Chloe became the mascot of the Royal Navy frigate and is considered an icon of the city.

A friend of ours compared Sydney to Los Angeles and Melbourne to San Francisco. Of course, we added that it’s like a cleaner version of San Francisco, without the homeless problem.

Melbourne is filled with wonderful street art and many are hidden historic gems. Officially, graffiti is illegal, so it is constantly changing. The murals are located throughout the city, but you can find clusters down the famous Hosier Line, which is opposite Federation Square and Flinders Street. AC/DC Lane, Duckboard Place, Fitzroy. They are all easy walks.

Here’s a link to a self-guided tour of the street art for those who want to discover the hidden artistic gems.

Enroute to Prince Phillips Island, we stopped at Moonlit Sanctuary Wildlife Conservation Park to see the kangaroos, more Tasmanian Devils, koala bears, and other animals and birds native to this area. Unfortunately, the kangaroos at this park are so well fed by the tourists that they don’t leap when they see strangers. In fact, they ignored our hands filled with kangaroo feed and went to sleep.

Prince Phillip Island lies just off Australia’s southern coast. We came to see the famous Penguin Parade, and saw thousands of Little Penguins marching in from the sea. They were formerly known as Fairy Penguins, but were renamed due to political correctness. After sunset (around 9:30 PM), groups of penguins come to land after a day of hunting and fishing for their babies. The penguins come in groupings called mobs, and the first few come to shore to test the waters and the danger level. If they sense any danger, they all rush back into the ocean. After a while, another mob of penguins try again to come to shore to go home. All along the coast, Little Penguins are coming home to their burrows or wooden boxes. We were sitting in the VIP stands, and quietly waited. Soon, a few bodies waddle in from the wild sea, climb up the sandy beach, waddle over mounds, and slide down the sandy hills. Not long after, there were hundreds. The official count the prior night was 1069.

Be sure to watch the video at the end of this post. There homes are everywhere along this part of the coast. Even along the plank walkways that were built for this location, the little penguins walk along side. The Penguin Parade is not to be missed.

Evelyn and Burt at Prince Phillips Island to watch the Penguin Parade. The Blow Hole is right behind us.

Tasmania 2 – Hobart

Tasmania is widely known for its clean air, unique wildlife, stunning scenery and a rich history of slavery. They also drive on the wrong side of the road, so coming from America, it can be a terrifying experience, when we drove from Launceston to Bichena to Hobart. We never overcame turning on our windshield wipers instead of our turn signals, since the steering column is on the right side of the vehicle, and the controls are on a different side than we are accustomed. Some of the unique aspects of driving included “skinny” roads, one-lane bridges, roundabouts rather than traffic signals, strange traffic directions (such as Give Way instead of Yield), Penguin and Kiwi Crossing signs, Watch for Aged Pedestrians (instead of Disabled), and a host of others that give Americans pause.

One top attraction is the Cascade Brewery (ab0ve), located just south of Hobart. It was established in 1824 by ex-convict Peter Degraves, and is the oldest brewery in Australia. When you take a tour of the brewing process, the historic sandstone buildings still exude an old world charm. Part way through the tour, they share their secret recipe for their renown craft beer. At the end, you get a chance to taste 4 beers on their tasting paddle (lower-left). Most of these beers are sold to the locals only, since the small distillery cannot produce enough for export. (Unfortunately, photography was not allowed inside the operating facilities, so these images are all we have to show)

While we were in Hobart, the capital of Tasmania and its chief port, we went on another walking tour to learn about the history of Tasmania. Tasmania was named after Dutch explorer Abel Tasman, who sited the island on 24 November 1642. Originally, the island was named Van Diemen’s Land, but renamed to remove the unsavory link with its penal settlements. Between 1804 and 1853, more than 70,000 convicts were forceably transported to Tasmania to become the work force to build its infrastructure.

In England, the tiniest of infractions would incur a 7 year “transport” sentence to one of Australia’s penal colonies, including Port Arthur in Tasmania. After being put to work, prisoners would return to their cells in the evenings, until their sentence was completed. There were 19 crimes that would incur a sentence of hard labor in Australia, including the crime of impersonating an Egyptian, petty larceny under one shilling, grand larceny above one shilling, burning clothes, and stealing fish from a pond or river.

There is a unique connection between Antarctica and Hobart, which is found all around the Hobart waterfront in the form of sculptures (center column). Hobart is the closest major city to the Antarctica, and was a major base for 19th century Antarctic whaling.

We also toured the Cascades Female Factory, which was a prison for women from 1828 to 1856. Its purpose was to further remove women convicts from the temptations and corruption of Hobart. Some of the women were sent here directly from England, mostly for petty crimes or for such things as “dressing unbecoming to a woman.” Others were sent to this prison from the local town, often for nothing more than flirting with a married man.

12% of the prisoners sent from England were women. The youngest female prisoner sent from England was 11 years old, with her crime being stealing another girl’s clothing in England. The youngest female in the prison was a 3 year-old girl from the local town, whose crime was living on the streets because her parents had died. They were tasked with cooking, hospital attendants, making and mending clothes. There were more than 1000 women packed into this facility built for 100.

Tasmania 1 — Our 100th Country

Up to this point, we had travelled to 99 countries. We wanted #100 to be special, so we decided to go to Tasmania. Officially, Tasmania is an island state of Australia, but the list of countries we use to count is from the Traveler’s Century Club, where membership requires having traveled to 100 countries. Here’s the link to their official list of 330 countries.

We decided that while we were exploring Tasmania, we had to see the Tasmanian Devil, an endangered species who are now seriously threatened by a cancerous face tumor. There are only between 15k-20k devils left in the wild. Here’s what we uncovered.

TASMANIAN DEVILS ARE SCREAMERS !

If a wolf howling at the moon sends shivers up your spine, wait until you hear a Tasmanian devil. In fact, the first Europeans to enter Tasmania imagined demons lurking in the bush when they heard the blood-curdling shrieks and growls. Hence being dubbed ‘devils’. It’s now known that their various vocalisations (coughs, growls, snorts, sniffs, screeches and even sneezes) are designed to scare off other animals. 

THEY YAWN WHEN CONFRONTED

Tasmanian devils are very timid and don’t normally pose a danger to people unless they are attacked or trapped. However, when they do feel threatened, they do strange ‘yawns’, showcasing their sharp teeth. While this looks quite fierce, it is actually more a display of fear and anxiety than aggression. Be mindful these wild animals have a strong bite, like a hyena’s, and can bite through your fingers.

Two of the best places to see the unique animals of New Zealand are at the Cradle Mountain Wildlife Sanctuary and the Trowunna Wildlife Sanctuary in Mole Creek. Be sure to go at feeding time, since they are nocturnal animals and are sleeping until feeding time. The animals are fed with farmed wombats and other cut up animals, both for food safety and stability of food supply. They are not the road kill, which we saw every kilometer while driving.

We took a private tour and got introduced to a few babies — a baby wombat (top row), and some baby quolls (bottom two rows), which are closely related to the Tasmanian Devil. A mother Tassie devil gives birth to approximately 20-40 joeys at any one time, but the mom only has 4 teats. Truly a test for survival of the fittest. The survivors live in their mom’s pouch for 3 months. After survival, many animals are released back into the wild.

At the end of each tour, we were handed a bag of kangaroo food. When we walked over, the kangaroos were so exuberant that they surrounded us and jumped onto our chest to reach the food.

We saw several moms with the joeys hanging out of their pouches, many times with just the long legs sticking out of the pouch. It turns out that a kangaroo can give birth to up to 3 joeys each year, and when one leaves the pouch, another can take its place. The joeys remain in the pouch for 9 months and can suckle until 12-17 months. The joeys are extremely flexible when in the pouch, and sometimes its feet would be sticking out right beside the head (lower right).

We always thought of kangaroos as wild, but these man-raised kangaroos were more like children. A baby kangaroo or any marsupial is called a Joey, because the local aboriginal word stands for “little animal”.

We loved Tasmania, which is known for their wild and beautiful landscape, clean air, eco-tourism, abundant marine life and exporter of wild abalone and lobster. Now that we’ve become centurions and reached our 100th country count, our goal is change the way we travel in the future. Most of our future travels will extend the amount of time at each place, instead of living out of our suitcases for months at a time.

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