Port Arthur, Tasmania (2017-02-27)

We had a great day at the Port Arthur Historic Site on Monday, staying until we almost dropped, in the 29 degree temperatures.

 

Port Arthur was originally established as a lumber-gathering penal camp in 1830, but by 1833 it had become the place where the worst re-offenders from other penal settlements were sent.  The approach was classification, separation, discipline and religious & moral instruction.  It makes the US prison at Guantanamo Bay look like a luxury resort.  Each convict wore ankle irons, weighing up to 13 Kg, connected by a short chain which allowed the wearer to shuffle.  The worst offenders were also chained to a wooden log, which they had to pick up and carry whenever they moved.  The convicts were not allowed to speak to each other. 

 

Also sent to Port Arthur were political prisoners, including Fenian Irishmen and some Canadian and Americans accused of trying to achieve independence from Britain for Canada.

 

We started with a harbour tour which gave us a good view of the entire facility.  In the photo below, the Commandant's house is on the point on the left and the large building in the foreground is the penitentiary.  Moving up the hill are the military facilities, and above that the officers' quarters.

 

Port Arthur Historic Site from the Harbour

The penitentiary was originally a grain & flour storage building, which was later converted to house convicts.  The large flat grassy area was reclaimed by convicts using pick and shovel, and was where the heavy workshops were built.

 

The Penitentiary

One of the most amazing things about the site was the stark difference between the lives of the convicts and the lives of those in control.  The senior civil servants were from the English upper class and lived in an English-style village, complete with church, formal gardens and a village green, where they could live a typical upper class life.

 

The Village Church across the Green

 

View from the Medical Officer's House

 It was a busy day at Port Arthur, with bus loads of tourists from a cruise ship which was docked in Hobart, but also the Queen Mary II was moored in the harbour at Port Arthur, bringing another 2,700 visitors.  By 3 pm the cruisers had left and the site, allowing us to explore more leisurely. 

 

Queen Mary II at Port Arthur

 

 Later in the afternoon we took in two mini plays, which provided a good explanation of various aspects of Port Arthur.  The first talked about an American who was sent to Port Arthur for helping Canadian separatists, and the second talked about the relative sanity of the convicts (the lunatic) versus the Commandant (the man with the plan) and the civil servants (the scribbler).

 

The Scribbler, the Lunatic & the Man with the Plan

When we left the site at 4:45 pm, there were very few people remaining.  It certainly was not difficult to spend a full day here, and we did not explore all of the buildings on site.

 

 Port Arthur is located at the bottom of the Tasman Peninsular, and was one of several penal facilities on the peninsular.  As you move up the peninsular, there are narrow isthmuses at Eaglehawk Neck & Dunalley, which acted as natural control points.  At Eaglehawk Neck there was a dog line extending across the isthmus and into the bay, where the dogs, on 3 metre chains, would attack any convict trying to escape by land. 

 

Jim Crossing the Dog Line

 Very close to Eaglehawk Neck there are a series of natural features caused by the water battering the rock over the years, creating caves, tunnels and arches.  So before leaving the area we explored Tasman's Arch, the Devil's Kitchen and the Tasman Blowhole (good ice cream here).

 

Tasman's Arch

  

Tasman Peninsular

 

Next stop, Coles Bay and Freycinet National Park

Napier - Wellington - Hobart (2017-02-25)

Monday was our last full day in Napier and we spent the day in town.  In the afternoon, we met up with Denzil, Maureen & two other cousins - Janette and Rhonda for coffee.  I had not seen Janette and Rhonda for 19 years, and Marlene had never met them, so good to catch up with them.

On Tuesday morning we repacked our suitcases, and were picked up by Maureen and Denzil, who transported us to the bus station in Napier, with one last coffee break at New World in Greenmeadows.  We said our goodbyes and joined the throng trying to board the bus (first on = best seats).  The 5 1/2 hour trip to Wellington was uneventful, with a half hour leg stretch in Palmerston North....just enough time to grab a sandwich and eat it!

Wednesday and Thursday were spent with Margaret, getting organized for our looming trip to Tasmania, and trying to cut down an ivy that had intertwined with her fence.  But we did find time for coffee and a date scone at Revive in Petone on both days.

Thursday night was a very short sleep for us all.  We were in bed by 10 pm, but at 2 am our alarm clocks (phones) were telling us it was time to get up, as we had a shuttle coming at 3 am, to take us to our 6 am flight from Wellington to Melbourne.  We made it with enough time in hand to have breakfast in the Wellington airport, in fact we had to wait about 15 minutes for the check-in machines to open. 

 

The flight to Melbourne was long enough for a short sleep, and, with three hours available, we had no trouble making our connection to Hobart, where we arrived at about 1 pm local time.  We picked up our rental car, a Hyundai Elantra, which seems to have adequate space for us 4 and our luggage, and headed off to our accommodations in Glenorchy.  The accommodations were wonderful, with a queen bed in one bedroom and two singles in the other.  As Tricia was suffering with a heavy cold, we moved Margaret's mattress into the living room so that she could have a more peaceful sleep.  There was a Woolworths grocery store 2 blocks away, so no problem getting food.

 

Our collective interest in Tasmania is largely because our great great grandmother, Elizabeth Hemblin, was transported to Tasmania in 1842 for stealing a frying pan.  We are hoping to learn more about the living conditions of the convicts, so our first stop on Saturday was the Female Factory, which was a prison for convict women.  Our guide was very informative, and we were very glad to have taken the tour.

 

From there we headed into Hobart, parked the car, and set off to explore the downtown area.  Being Saturday, the Salamanca Market was in full swing, so we wandered through the mass of humanity.  The market has been operating here since 1972, and the vendors sell a wide variety of goods, including a lot of arts and crafts. 

 

Stall at Salamanca Market

 The downtown area of Hobart covers quite a few blocks, and is nestled between the harbour and Mount Wellington.  One building which we noticed, and which will be familiar to anyone who has visited Palmerston North in New Zealand, was the T&G building.  The Temperance and General Mutual Life Assurance Society built similar buildings across Australia in the 1930s, in a style referred as vertical art deco.

 

Vertical Art Deco Style

 

We then wandered the streets to find St. Andrew's Park, formerly St. Andrew's Burial Ground, the final resting place of Elizabeth Hemblin's first husband, James Elder, who was buried here in 1849.  There was no expectation of finding a headstone, but it was good to see the place, and nearby Murray Street, where James and Elizabeth lived.

 

Entrance to St. Andrew's Park

 Later in the day we walked around Battery Point and found a very popular bakery / cafe, where we sat at an outside table and enjoyed a coffee and treats, before heading back to Glenorchy for the night.

 

On Sunday we headed back into the city, where we visited the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, which, unlike most Canadian museums, has no entrance fee.  The museum gave a good overview of Tasmanian history, which should help us to understand the place.

 

We then wandered around Constitution Dock, the hub of the waterfront, before heading out of town towards Taranna, where we will be based for the next two nights.

 

Hobart City from the Harbour

 

Steam Gives Way to Sail

 

 Enroute to Taranna we took a slight detour to view Pirate's Bay (not the place of illegal downloads), and to visit the Tessellated Pavement State Reserve, an oddball geological formation.

  

Pirate's Bay

 

Tessellated Pavement

 As we drove down the highway from Hobart to Taranna we did not see any wildlife, apart from an increasing number of wallabies and the occasional Tasmanian Devil, squished by passing vehicles, similar to seeing opossums on the road in New Zealand.

 

Tomorrow we will explore the Port Arthur area, so stay tuned.....

 

Napier week 3 (2017-02-19)

On Tuesday, cousins Maureen and Denzil transported us to our new home, in Taradale.  We thought that we travelled light, but with books, bags and bikes it needed both of their vehicles to make the move, but only a 10 minute drive.

 

Our new home is in Jervoistown, just East of Taradale, and somewhat rural - lots of market gardens and vineyards in the area.  The centre of Taradale is about a 15 minute walk from here.  The house is new, on a large lot, and we are in a suite attached to the back of the house. 

 

Our hostess is an artist, working especially with mosaics, and the yard is tastefully decorated with her work.

 

Mosaic Artwork

  

Teapots

  

Flower Pots

 Right outside our back door is a large vege garden, and we have been instructed to take as much lettuce as we wish, and we have also been given tomatoes and courgettes (zucchini).  It feels like we have been transported to the Garden of Eden (without the forbidden fruit).

 

On Wednesday we met Marlene's friend, Glenys, and husband Alan, for coffee in Taradale, and then visited the local library and picked up groceries.

 

We have had a few good bike rides - twice around the Puketapu loop, and once out to Clive, but the weather has not been very cooperative.  On Friday and Saturday it poured with rain all day and all night.  Not so good for Art Deco Week, but very welcome to the farmers, who have been suffering with a lack of rain.

 

Not letting the rain beat us, on Friday, we and cousins Maureen and Denzil went on a road trip to visit a 3rd cousin (relationship-wise) who lives on a farm near Onga Onga, which is about an hours drive away.  We had a great day out, reviewed masses of family history information, and as it was almost dinner time when we got back to Taradale, ate in a local restaurant.  No exercise, apart from the flapping of lips and the wagging of tongues.

 

Sunday's weather was much better, so we got out for a bike ride in the morning, ending up at the cafe at the Silky Oak Chocolate Factory.  Marlene was in heaven - coffee and chocolate.  I saw a cute sign (which could apply equally to women) - "Men are like chocolate - Avoid the nutty ones and the ones that someone else put back".

 

As it was a nice day, and we had not seen anything of Art Deco week, we decided to take the bus into Napier, to check out the festivities.  We rushed to the bus stop for the 1:30 pm bus, as I was thinking that it was Saturday, but then realizing that it was Sunday, found that the next bus was at 2:30 pm.  So we walked into Napier, which took us an hour and a quarter, but we still got there sooner than if we had waited for the bus.

 

The city was very busy, with street performers, music in the soundshell, and the annual Art Deco Picnic.  We found some shade near the soundshell to eat our ice cream, while listening to the music and watching the people go by.  By 5 pm our muscles were telling us it was time to quit, and we caught the bus home. 

 

Dancing at the Soundshell

  

Picnic by the Fountain

  

A Boy and his Bears

 We only have one more day in Napier, and that will include coffee with yet another group of cousins, in Napier.  Then on Tuesday we head back to Wellington to prepare for our trip to Tasmania.

Napier week 2 (2017-02-12)

 

We have spent the past week doing a lot of biking and a lot of walking around Napier.  Nothing too exciting....2 circuitous rides to Clive and back, on routes that we had not tried before, and a couple of rides (into the wind in both directions) up to Bay View.  The temperatures have varied from low 30s at the beginning of the week, to mid-teens mid-week, and back into the 30s today.  But somehow we survive.  We also managed a few library visits, for me to retrieve information critical to my family history research (or so I told Marlene), and several meals with cousins, Maureen & Denzil.

 

On one of our walks we spotted this cat, safely on one side of the gate, while the dog stood on the other side, barking his head off.  Cruel!

 

Cat tormenting dog through the gate

It has also been a busy week for our daughter, Heather, and family.  Last weekend they bought a house in Sunshine Hills (Delta), prepared their current house for sale, and by Friday night it was sold.  They do not get possession until May, so we will be home to help.  They are going to be cashtrated for the next few years.

 

Cashtration - a definition

 Until yesterday, we had not seen any cruise ships in the Napier harbour, and then yesterday we saw the Dawn Princess arriving, and today the Noordam was in port when we cycled by on our way to Bay View.  This coming week is Art Deco week in Napier (starts in earnest on Wednesday), so there will probably be cruise ships in harbour on most days.

 

Dawn Princess backing into Napier Harbour

 We will probably not see much of Art Deco week this year, as on Tuesday we have to leave our current home and head out to Taradale for our last week in the area.  We were not able to find one place for all three weeks of our stay.  We have already riden past our "new home" and it looks very nice, but we have been happy in our Napier unit, so are somewhat disappointed to be leaving it.  But we will be away from the tourist throng, and it will give us the opportunity to explore a little further afield on the bikes, so a good outcome.

 

Donald Trump features very frequently in conversation and in the media over here, as I am sure he is where you are also.  The cartoon in yesterday's local paper was particularly apropos.

 

 

Speaking of Donald Trump, I dreamed that I had researched his ancestry, and found that one of his ancestors was a buffalo and another was a baboon....that would explain why he is such a buffoon.

 

Napier week 1 (2017-02-05)

We spent Tuesday at our home for the next two weeks, catching up on emails, doing laundry and other assorted jobs, and generally enjoying our own company. 

 

Wednesday was a very hot, 33 degree, day, so while wanting to get out enjoy Hawkes Bay, it had to be somewhere shady.  We opted for the Tainui Reserve in Havelock North, where we were able to enjoy a decent walk, while staying out of the blistering sun.  On the way home we stopped off and picked up some organic fruit and vegetables just outside Hastings, and then stopped for coffee at Zepplin Cafe in Clive (a favourite biking destination for us last year).

 

I have already posted about our trip to Cape Kidnappers on Thursday, so we will go straight to Friday.  Friday was again forecast to be very hot, so we set off early in the morning to climb Te Mata Peak outside of Havelock North.  The Peak rises 440 metres above the surrounding plain, so offers great views of the area.  We parked just inside the main gates, and opted for the longest route to the top, which went through some nice forested areas and culminated in a series of switchbacks to reach the top.

Switchbacks on Te Mata Peak

After climbing steadily for an hour, we arrived at the top, to find that we could have driven all the way up here .  This seems to be a recurring theme! 

 

View from the top of Te Mata Peak

As we drove back through Hastings, I spied a sign in the middle of a roundabout, pointing to the "DIY Coffin Club" (photo below). 

 

DIY Coffin Club Sign

Intrigued, I Googled the term to see exactly what a do it yourself coffin club does.  Unsurprisingly, it is a group of people who get together to help each other build their own coffins, which are then decorated at the whim of the planned occupant.  Apparently coffins make great bookshelves or wine racks while awaiting their final purpose.  Perhaps this is taking "Be Prepared" a little too far?  In addition to making their own coffins, the club also supplies small coffins for stillborn babies, free of charge, to the local hospital.  So a good community-focussed activity.

 

My cousins, Maureen and Denzil, delivered their bicycles to us on Friday afternoon, as they don't want to cycle in the heat.  This is great for us, as it saves us buying bikes to enjoy Napier's wonderful trails.  On Saturday afternoon I pumped up the tyres (that is "tires" for the Canadians), and we were ready for action. 

 

Meanwhile, on Saturday morning we dropped off our rental car, walked into Ahuriri for a coffee, and then walked back around Bluff Hill to our temporary home, with a short stopover at the city library enroute.  In the evening we did a short (1 hour) bike ride, just to get accustomed to the bikes, before tackling anything more major.

 

Sunday morning was calm and sunny with a forecast high of 25 degrees, so we hit the road early, cycling up to the campground at Bay View, about 13 Km away, and another coffee destination from last summer.

 

Intrepid Cyclists on Boardwalk at Ahuriri

 When we arrived home, we noticed that the cactus in our garden, which we had seen buds on the other day, was now flowering.  Meanwhile we were wilting from the heat.

 

Our Flowering Cactus

 In the afternoon we walked into town to do a little shopping, with another short stop at the library and grocery store, as everything will be closed tomorrow for a public holiday, celebrating the anniversary of my Mum's birth (and the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi between the British and Maori).

 

There has been no shortage of exercise this week, and we are certainly glad to be in the sun, rather than the snow which is hitting the West Coast of BC at the moment.

 

Cape Kidnappers (2017-02-01)

As we only had a car for our first 5 days in Napier, we decided to do some out of town excursions while we had it.  This included a visit to Cape Kidnappers, home of the largest mainland gannet (its a bird) colony in the world.

 

Cape Kidnappers forms the southern end of Hawkes Bay and was named by Captain Cook in 1869, as the place where a group of local Maori tried to kidnap a Tahitian boy who was on board the Endeavour.  The gannets must have heard about it (perhaps from a stowaway seagull), as they arrived a few years later, and have been nesting here ever since.

 

There are 3 ways to get to see the gannets -

1. Walk the 20 Km round trip on the beach for free (at low tide)

2. Take a $44 ride along the beach on a trailer towed behind a tractor, then walk to the colony

3. Ride right to the gannet colony on an air-conditioned bus for $80

 

Marlene might have opted for the longer walk option, but I still have nightmares from making the trip as a Boy Scout 50 years ago, and convinced her to take the tractor ride.  Thankfully it was more overcast and cooler than Tuesday (33 degrees), so the ride was bearable.  Each tractor towed 2 trailers, with about 10 people per trailer, so we had about 40 people in total, making the journey.

 

Gannet Beach Adventures

The tractor ride takes you along the beach, which is partly sandy, but largely rocky, below cliffs which tower 2-300 feet above you, and occasionally through the water, if necessary.  At one point the tractor drivers both got out and attacked some new rocks with pick axes to make the ride less bumpy.  Each day more and more of the cliffs falls into the sea below.  Thankfully only a few pebbles came down during our ride, but even a small pebble could cause you some damage after falling 200 feet.

 

The tractors negotiated past Black Reef and along a sandy section of beach, to where we began the 30  minute climb up to a plateau, where the gannets nest. 

 

The Beach and Black Reef from the Plateau Gannet Colony

 

There are about 8,000 breeding pairs at Cape Kidnappers this year, so there are gannets as far as you can see, hear or smell.  The adult gannets have yellow heads, and the chicks start off all white and become grey and speckled as they get older.

 

Where's Waldo

The adult gannets care for the chicks until they are about 15 weeks old, at which point the chicks, having never flown before, fly to Australia (my first flight was also to Australia, but I did it in the relative comfort of an Air New Zealand DC8).  The journey takes about 8 days for the gannets, versus 3 hours on the DC8.

 

The gannets are obviously very smart birds, as after 2-3 years in Australia they fly back to New Zealand and never visit Australia again.

 

My Favourite - Isn't she (he?) Cute?

 

Charming Chicks

 After our allotted hour and a half at the Plateau Colony, we set off on the return journey to Clifton. At this point, Ian, our tractor driver, comedian and tour guide, told us that the Gannets at the Black Reef Colony are exactly the same as the ones we had just climbed to hill to see, and we would be able to see them without getting off the trailer.  Bugger!

 

Baby Gannet at Black Reef Colony

The cliffs along the northern side of Cape Kidnappers show layer after layer of different deposits, including volcanic ash, river silt and heavier rocks.  Having been built up over thousands of years, the cliffs also show earthquake action.  The photo below shows an old earthquake fault line (the near vertical line), where the land on the left of the fault dropped down about 8 metres (25 feet), compared to the land on the right of the fault.

 

Old Earthquake Fault Line

It is said that you have to have a sense of humour to be a New Zealander, and some local wag has posted a "Topless Bathing Permitted" sign outside his beachfront lean-to.  I don't see what the big deal is....I always bathe topless (if you can get me into the water at all).

 

Topless Bathing Permitted