Author: bzspony1949

We've been full time RVers since 2015 and have been fortunate enough to have seen all 50 states (we flew to Hawaii and alaska) and stayed in each at least one week! It's been an awesome adventure but we've decided to park our fifth wheel in Yuma Arizona, mostly because its warm year round! By staying put in one place we can now do other travel both in the USA and abroad.

Christchurch, New Zealand- Day 4

Kaikoura Whale Watching Tour

On day 4 of our grand adventures with Scotty, he took us to Kaikoura where we boarded a boat to go whale watching. This area is known for this activity, so we were very excited to go! And the weather was perfect too!
We’re about to board and start this adventure!
This high tech monitor shows our boat without the water, so we can see the terrain of the bottom and see what our depth is.
Sorry this is a bit blurry, but its showing what whales we might see.
The captain suspects there’s whale activity nearby so she’s scanning with some kind of sonar device to determine what direction to head.
She’s done with that, now she’ll move the boat towards it.
While searching, we got to see an Albatross! According to our commentator they are rarely seen!
Another screen shot of our boat, showing a depth of 745 meters or 2444 feet.
Here’s a closer shot of the Albatross. An Albatross’s wingspan can be 6.5′ to 11,5′ while a seagull will be about 3.5′.
Thar she blows! In short order, we spotted a whale, and not just any whale! it was a Sperm Whale! According to our guide, who’s been researching whales for 15 years, this is very rare! This whale can stay submerged for hours and only surfaces for about a half hour, we were very lucky to witness this occasion!
That protrusion you see sticking out of the water is not a dorsal fin, it’s just where the backbone drops down towards its tail fin. These whales are the largest whales that have teeth and can be 52 to 62 feet long for males and 35 to 40 feet for females!
Another interesting fact she told us is that the blowhole on sperm whales isn’t centered, it’s slightly to the left.
What a special day: to see both an Albatross and a Sperm whale on the same trip!
I wasn’t able to get it, but luckily Joni got this parting shot as the whale dove back down!
Here’s a clearer representation of this massive creature. According to our guide they were hunted extensively years ago because of the abundance of oil in their head, up to 500 gallons!
That sighting was only about 2 hours in on what was supposed to be a 4 hour trip, but there was a medical emergency onboard, so we had to head back in early!
What an incredible trip! It was unfortunately cut short but the good news was they refunded our money 100%! Fantastic adventure and FREE! Hopefully the poor sole who had the medical emergency was okay in the end.
They added an observation deck on top of this water tank, pretty cool!
One last view of the bay then back home for the day!

The end of our adventure for day 4, coming up, Day 5……..

Christchurch, New Zealand- Day 3

Akaroa

We’re on the road again with Scotty, on our way to visit the beautiful town of Akaroa.
Our route took us through this tunnel. I’m sorry, I still think we’re on the wrong side of the road!
The trip there was very scenic.
This was kind of bizarre , they planted these trees in a perfect square! It’s called a forestry block, pine trees for future harvesting. This particular one is called the Damn Square of Akaroa.
These are our first glimpses of their beautiful bay.
My obligatory shot of a pier, love the shadow!
Interesting tree.
Every fisherman’s rules!
Downtown Akaroa, beautiful flowers everywhere.
We were intrigued with The Giants House. After a short debate about trudging up the hill to see it, we decided to go for it. After all, we came half way around the world to be here!
The artist, Josie Martin, who has lived here for 26 years found some shards of broken tiles or pottery while digging for a garden and she had the idea of creating some artwork from it. That plus when she began, the town and neighbors donated more. It expanded exponentially from there! She calls it The Happiest Garden in the World!
Jan and Joni “relaxing” on this tiled cement bench!
The more we explore and look, the weirder it gets!
I warned you! The farther you go the weirder it gets!
These two are Joni’s favorites, NOT!
Lane about to be eaten by a huge rabbit!
Jan and Joni catching a little shade.
I’m not sure exactly what this is representing?!?
Upward and onward!
Why not, an octopus next to an elephant!
There was actually a nice view of the bay from up there.
Yes, VERY steep stairs and no railings! They obviously don’t have OSHA here! BTW, I did not go down them!
The hands have it!
Those non OSHA approved stairs from down below.
For a little normalcy intervention, some pretty flowers!
And back to the non normal!
More Topiary.
Broken wine bottles? Use them too!
Sure, why not!
Jan making friends again! No, we’re not adopting him!
Dove Sentries?
Hopscotch anyone? This looks to be a work in progress.
Yes, these are real flowers!
Well, back down to reality!

Christchurch, New Zealand- Day 2, Arthurs Pass National Park

Scotty took us to the train station in Christchurch where we boarded a train to Arthurs Pass.
This is the scenery along our train trip. I didn’t take a lot of pictures because of the reflection in the windows. While we were on our way up there he drove his van up to meet us and then took
us through the beautiful countryside.
The next several pictures are ones Joni and I took with our iPhones, much better than my Nikon could do from the train!
The map on the train showing us where we are on the route.
We’ve arrived at Arthurs Pass, now on to our adventure afternoon with Scotty.
In the van heading out.
Scotty took a group photo of us.
And of course, I had to take one with him in it too.
Charlie Warden was the first Ranger for Arthurs Pass National Park.
Devils Punchbowl Falls was our first stop. It was quite a hike to go up to the falls so all the close up pictures were up to Joni!
Devils Punchbowl Falls from a distance.
A close up view via my 300mm lens, no hiking required!
She even took a selfie!
This bridge was as far as Jan and I were willing to hike
Jan and Joni by the Arthurs Pass National Park sign.
Some views of Arthurs Pass as we move on to our next stop.
This is the story of the three sisters, depicted by the three busts shown here.
Lots of caravans here visiting.
The explanation of the shelter carving.
Lane trying to get this bird to cooperate for a photo.

The ending of a long day, van ride back to our VRBO to prepare for day three, stay tuned……..

Christchurch, New Zealand

I’ll start this post with a bit of an add for this awesome gentleman. Scotty of ScottyB Tours was our tour guide for our 5 days in and around Christchurch. He was a fantastic guide too! He was knowledgeable and very interesting to listen to. He knows the area extremely well and had lots of interesting stories along our journey. We highly recommend him if you are ever in New Zealand, he is available for tours anywhere on the South Island!
If your interested, his website is: http://www.scottybtours.com
Our first day was a tour of Christchurch itself. Our first stop was this place. The site was a building that housed Canterbury Television Station, King’s Education Language School, Hair Consultants, Relationship Services and The Clinic Medical Center. On February 22, 2011, an earthquake of 6.3 Magnitude struck the city and the building collapsed, killing 115 people and injuring many more inside. The site is now a memorial honoring the lives lost that tragic day.
This was part of the foundation of the building.
A memorial to those lives lost.
This is a church that they lovingly call the “Cardboard Cathedral”. It was designed and erected next to the memorial and it got its name because what you are looking at is the roof of the chapel
and those are 100 heavy duty cardboard tubes coated with waterproof polyurethane and flame retardant.! They sit on 8 shipping containers which form the base and walls. It was designed by a famous Japanese architect Shigeru Ban in association with a local firm Warren and Mahoney.This is their temporary place of worship while the original church is under construction to repair the damage caused by the earthquake.
Even the chairs that are the “Pews” are in keeping with the Japanese theme.
This is the Christ Church Cathedral which as you can see is fenced off while they work on it. Completion of the project is not until the end of 2027!
Local artists took advantage of the fencing and are displaying some beautiful artwork!
Next on our tour was the Christchurch Botanical Gardens. As you’ll see.
As you’ll see in the next several pictures it was very colorful, especially since this was the beginning of their fall season!
That is a huge tree! Especially compared to Joni and Lane!
Not all the flowers are real or life size!
Lane on the left, Jan in the middle, Scotty and Joni to the right.
Quite a variety of different color roses too!
We loved this fountain!
Some of the beautiful old buildings around the Gardens
There is also some interesting art pieces scattered throughout the city too!
Down along this river they have installed another memorial to those lives lost in the earthquake of 2011.
I’m not sure what this is about, kind of odd!
Christchurch is where a lot of the expeditions to Antartica leave from! They’re only about 3500 miles from there. It seemed weird that the farther south you go down here the colder it gets; opposite of where we live!
More beautiful flowers!
We had lunch at Delilah, a very cool restaurant with great food!
After lunch Scotty took us to this trail that lead to a great view of the bay.

That’s it for Day 1 of our Adventures with Scotty. Stay tuned for Day 2……..

Brisbane, Australia-Day 2

Maleny Botanical Gardens and Bird World

It was a rainy day but that didn’t dampen the enthusiasm of our guide in the Bird World enclosure! She was a fantastic guide with lots of great information!
Joni making friends!
The residents didn’t seem to care about the rain either!
I don’t think James was 100% sure he was enjoying this close encounter!
The bird was though!
I was glad I had a hood between this bird’s talons and my bald head!
Stunning White Peacocks
Joni making more friends!
Jan wasn’t too sure she was enjoying this! Exactly why I was glad I had my hood up!
Lane and friend! She had that feather duster to keep them away but apparently A) she didn’t want to or B) the bird didn’t care!
Joni’s turn, but at least she has thick hair!
The feeding station.
Twins! Whose nails are longer, the birds or our guides?
The useless feather dusters.
We rented a golf cart to tour the Botanical Gardens but due to the rain it was a short trip.
The rain and foggy conditions made the gardens look even more tropical and lush!

This concludes our pictures from Sydney and Brisbane, Australia. Next up will be our adventures in New Zealand! STAY TUNED!

Brisbane, Australia

Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary

James, Bryce’s brother who lives in Brisbane, was our tour guide and driver. He had lots of very interesting history and other info he imparted to us as we toured around Brisbane. He took us to this Sanctuary which was very interesting!
These are Flying Foxes, a very large Bat!
One of the many very cute Koalas. This one is actually awake….and eating!
I believe this bird is a Bush Stone Curlew, common for the area. It looks like it’s legs are broken but that’s the way they’re built!
A Pink Cockatoo, grooming!
Sleeping!
This picture is for our grandson, Reeve!
This handsome guy is one of the many species of lizards at the Sanctuary.
Another sleeping Koala!
WOW! Not sleeping or eating!
Rainbow Lorikeets
They had a great Raptor show!
A very large nest with an occupant.
A few resident Sheep as well.
And a lazy pig.
Another species of lizard.
The resident Crocodile, Wickham.
The crocodile enclosure tank even had this enticing child bubble for Wickham, the lone resident Crocodile!
We were excited that they even had a Dingo display!
Unfortunately, the Dingo didn’t share our excitement!
This little cute koala even posed nicely for me!
And one last lizard picture!
After our sanctuary visit, we went to the water for lunch. These sea gulls were enjoying the shade of this tree.
James, Joni and Lane enjoying the view including the wind surfers.
It was a very good windy day for the wind surfers for sure!!
A couple of tourists and their dog enjoying the gentle surf.

Next Up, Day 2 in Brisbane and a Bird Sanctuary

Sydney, Australia- Day 3

The Opera House (In Depth Views)

Here’s a full view of the front of the Opera House. It is quite a stunning structure!
These photos showsthe intricacy of the roof lines, amazing!
The structure inside was equally impressive as you’ll see in the next pictures!
This is Premier Joe Cahill who was instrumental in getting the Opera House built starting with the design competition starting in 195,. the winning design was picked in 1957. Actual construction began in 1959 and opened in 1973.
It took the architects and designers 3 years to finalize the design before construction could begin.
This is Queen Elizabeth and her Court at the opening in October of 1973!
Here’s an arial photo taken at the time; it was now the premier focus in the Sydney waterfront!
The walls and these wood structures were all engineered for optimal acoustics!
A view from the outer area towards the skyline of the city.
Lane and Joni with the guide. She was very informative.
Back in the city we took a Hop on Hop off tour of Sydney. This is the Australian Museum which we unfortunately did not get to visit.
This the Sydney Tower Eye from a distance.
We loved the contrast of old world architecture mixed in with very modern and creative architecture!
Again, Jan’s favorite “LEGO” building!
After the tour was lunch at Bondi Beach.

That’s it For Sydney! Next up; Brisbane! Stay Tuned….

Sydney, Australia (contd)

Blue Mountain Tour

The Blue Mountain Tour included Fantastic views of the Blue Mountains, the Hydro Majestic Pavilion, Scenic World, and a Zoo which had everything from Koalas to Kangaroos to a very large Crocodile!.

Hydro Majestic Pavilion
Beautiful views of the Blue Mountains on or way up.
Jan was particularly fond of this piece.
The views from inside were quite beautiful.
The color scheme and decor was quite “arresting”.
The billiards room with the biggest pool table we
have ever seen!
This place had quite a eclectic assortment of decor and furnishings!
I snuck a quick picture of the very elegant main dining room which we weren’t allowed to enter.
The main check in area. The is a living vine behind it!
Outside the building were ver beautiful landscaping and fantastic views of the Blue Mountains.
This fellow apparently can’t decide what color hair he wants!
One lone Cockatoo!
Young and vibrant
Older and not so vibrant!
Back on the bus with our fabulous guide Leonard and his little pal (I forget his name!)

On to Scenic World!

Our first mode of transportation was this Cableway
The glass floor was a bit disconcerting!
This formation is the famous Three Sisters
It was a beautiful ride but there seems to be an awful lot of slack in those cables!
It was very lush and green up there!
The next mode of transportation was quite different. It’s a Scenic Railway Incline and you can choose how inclined you want to be!
Three Sisters in the distance.
Once at the bottom there was nice wide path to follow with things to see on the way.
Lots of displays depicting the mining operations .
This was the original Scenic Railway Incline, not quite as plush and comfortable as the current one!
Here’s my obligatory lawyer picture of the working of the cable car.
Now they show this after we’re trapped at the bottom and have to take the cablecar back up!
On our way back up.
A bit cloudier on the way back up!

On to the Zoo

Of course they had plenty of these cute fellows & gals!
Just chillin’
This isn’t a baby Kangaroo, its a Tasmanian Pademelon.
Whatcha’ lookin’ at?!
Native language hyrglyphs? Your guess is as good as mine!
Tasmanian Devil, perfect name for this odd creature!
Koalas sleep most of the time! Kind of like cats!
No Zoo is complete without a VERY large Crocodile! You’ll notice he’s in that tank all alone! Such a cute smile only his mother could love!
And we finish with monkeys doing what monkeys do: monkey around!

To be continued with a more in depth look at the Opera House…

Australia & New Zealand Adventures

Welcome back to the Casa de Ziegler II Blog! I know it’s been quite a while since we posted anything but we’re back now! We hope you enjoy our new adventure abroad in beautiful Australia and New Zealand. We spent the month of March there with our dear friends/family Joni Berg and Lane Hammond.

Sydney, Australia

Our Walking Tour of Downtown Sydney

This is the Garrison Church in Sydney, one of the many beautiful stone churches there.
This bridge arch was pretty cool with the vines growing right out of the stone walls on either side!
The message on the side of this rental bike cracked us up!
This was a walkway along our walking tour.
I saw this beautifully done drawing on our tour and, of course, I HAD to take a picture!
Just a typical Post Box!
Another church and great old world architecture,
One of many wine shops.
Open air dining abounds!
This gigantic Cruise ship was in port!
The skyline was impressive with the mixture of old world buildings and modern, very progressive design, architecture!
The Contemporary Art Museum.
And of course the very iconic Opera House! (More of this later on in this post!)
The girls with the Opera House in the distance.
One of the many (MANLY?!?) ferries available.
An Australian White Ibis, a flightless bird.
Cameras, cameras and more cameras! Even Australia has Big Brother watching!
Some of the beautiful landscaping that was everywhere!
A Silver Gull, common in Australia.
LOTS of steps from the pier up to the street above!
More beautiful flowers!
We’re now in the Royal Botanic Garden in Sydney. This was an unusual art exhibit.
Lane and Joni enjoying the Gardens.
A view of the famous Sydney Harbour Bridge from the gardens.
I zoomed in with my 300mm to catch the crazy people who choose to walk over the top of the bridge! They actually pay money for this honor!!
This exotic bird blends in quite well don’t you think?
This tourist lady asked Joni to take her picture and of course she obliged! As you can also see in this picture is a view of the opera house you don’t usually see, the front side where you enter the building!
Beautiful VERY old tree!
This was a very “interesting” sculpture!
Another very old tree!
This wrought iron structure was pretty cool!
This was constructed using smooth stones and cement.
The Royal Government House (Estate, Mansion, ETC!!)
Another view of the downtown architecture from the Gardens.Jan especially liked the “LEGO” building on the right!
These trees are massive!
Another impressive old government building near the gardens,

To be continued…….

Alaska-Part II

Seward, Alaska

After family and friends left, we packed up and moved down to Seward where we stayed at the Creekside Cabins. The cabins ere very rustic but they had a new building with an upstairs and downstairs apartment with all the amenities. It was fairly nice and in a very woodsy area. We were originally supposed to have the upstairs, but it wasn’t finished in time, so we were downstairs.
It was a nice place with good views (except for the fishing boat outside our window)
This was the view from the dining area window.
The area around the building was very lush with greenery!

Kenai Fjords National Park and Exit Glacier

We realized that the Kenai Fjords National Park and Exit Glacier were just up the road a bit. What’s interesting about the drive there is there are signs on the side of the road marking where the glacier was in years past starting in 1950. It was a few miles larger then than where it is today! Exit Glacier is one of several glaciers from the Kenai Peninsula ice field on top, which is 700 square miles!
The river you see here is melt off from the glacier. The grayish tint is from the silt of the glacier.

This is a close up (via my 300mm lens) showing the detail of the glacier including the hole in the middle that was created by once flowing water of the melting glacier.

Seward Kenai Fjords Boat Tour

We love boat tours and this one did not disappoint!
The combination of dark green foliage, snow and low hanging clouds is beautiful!
Minutes into our tour we spotted a few  Orcas.
They were kind enough to put on a show for us too!

The shoreline was spectacular with lots of greenery and rugged rock cliffs.

When the captain spotted these guys he really got excited! He said it was the largest pod of Grey whales he’d ever seen! There were about 10!

There were also hundreds of gulls waiting for any scraps they might leave behind!

We passed this glacier in the distance along our tour. (Close up via my long lens)

Finally arriving at the captains destination, this beautiful glacier.
I couldn’t resist the shot of this passing gull.

This close up reveals the blue tint to this glacial ice.
Here are a couple of seals lounging on an ice flow to temporarily get out of the freezing water. It must be cold water if they consider lying on ice instead!
As we approached this chunk of ice “calved” off.

The captain had his crew retrieve a chunk of the ice and we all had a glacial cocktail!
Jan’s holding a piece here, it’s very clear ice!
Here are some sea otters playing in the ice field.

Two of the many waterfalls from the top of the glacial field.

Lots of summer foliage from the nutrient rich water and rock.

Farther down the coast we came upon these lounging seals.

This fellow must have had a rough day!
Notice the marking on the big fellow, it’s an identification marking for the rangers.
This one almost looks like a ground hog the way he’s posed!
How do those little pine trees grow up there?

We even saw a mountain goat!
This map shows where we went as well as a couple of other tours from this company. We were on the Northwestern Fjord Tour.
On the return trip I enjoyed a Puffin Pale Ale, pretty tasty!

 

 

One last shot from the boat as we returned to port.

Seward-Mural Capital of Alaska

These murals are scattered all over Seward on various buildings. It’s a day’s adventure to hunt them all down!

This one is on the local Seward Library and Museum, which is a beautiful building in it’s self as you can see below!

The views around Seward are beautiful as well.

The town itself is quaint and pretty cool!
This little restaurant was very nice. Good food and locally owned.
Seward had a 4th of July parade and street party.

Day Trip to Hope, Alaska

On the 4th of July we decided to go check out Hope since we have a very good friend named Hope! This truck and water wheel grinding wheel were on the side of the road on the way there. Anybody have an axe to grind?!?

Shortly after we arrived in Hope and after Jan was able to buy a coffee cup for Hope from Hope, the proprietor of the shop ran out the door saying”The parade is starting, the parade is starting!”, We followed to see the action! One fire engine…
One pickup truck…

 

Couple of ATVs…..

 

One convertible loaded to the hilt…
And a family on their bicycles, that’s it!
Oh, and a walker! Short but fun to watch, I’m sure everybody in town was either in it or on the side of the street watching and cheering!

This sign was in front of the store we bought Hope’s coffee cup in, pretty funny and great advice!
We stopped at this little restaurant/bar on the way out of Hope. Cute place and good food.
But they did have wine! Jan said it was actually okay!
The scenery on the drive up and back was beautiful!

Day Trip to Whittier

Whittier was a different kind of drive. The only way to get there is drive through this one way tunnel or by boat. we paid a roundtrip toll.
The tunnel is one way only, monitored by stop lights, AND shared by the railroad!
You can see the tracks in the tunnel here, they have that rubber plate they put between the rails at railroad crossings so you can drive on them. Before you freak out; they run the trains through at night and vehicles during the day!
The light at the end of the tunnel! Even though it’s one way traffic and trains only run at night, it’s still a little weird driving through it!
Oh, and when you exit the tunnel be sure to make that left jog or you’ll end up driving onto the tracks at the other end!
Once in Whittier there wasn’t much to see, it’s strictly a fishing port!
The drive there and back was pretty despite the drizzle.

Homer, Alaska

After Seward we moved on to Homer where we stayed in this lovely B&B, Juneberry Lodge. The couple who ran it were wonderful hosts! We had the room on the right of the red door overlooking their beautiful property and the bay and mountains in the distance.

This was the view from our window; this picture was taken at 11:15PM!

This is a zoomed close-up of the glacier from the previous picture, one of the many glaciers on the Kenai peninsula.
Here are a couple of more shots from our drive around Homer. We spent some time down on the spit you see in this picture. It was cool, nothing picture worthy but fun to explore the various shops.

Homer-Rainbow Connection Tour Boat to Soldovia

While in Homer, we did yet another boat tour, this time to a small town across the bay called Seldovia, population 265. There are no roads to this community, so the only way to get there is by boat.
This is one of the water taxis that goes there regularly.
Here is another familiar shot; another glacier!

Alaskan seagull taking a little nap.

Here’s an Alaskan seagull taking a little siesta!
From this angle the hole in this rock formation appears to be a heart!
I got a couple of shots, not the best, of a Bald Eagle landing  on one of the channel markers.

Another Bald Eagle in the top of a pine tree.
Here is a Bald Eagle feasting on a piece of fish on the beach. We didn’t know until the guide told us that Bald Eagles are quite the scavengers!

Here you see a fixer-upper boat and beach house!
The locals call this “Frustration Point” or, our favorite, “Man Banging his Head on the Wall”.
And here is yet another Bald Eagle!

A family of Sea Otters enjoying a lazy float.
A female Sea Otter and her pup.

We’re approaching Seldovia.

We ate at this Boardwalk Pub & Grill; this was behind their bar!

There were some great wooden sculptures here.

The interesting thing about satellite TV in Alaska is all their dishes seem to point at the ground, but the receptor is low on the dish so it reflects the signal from the top of the dish. It actually makes sense since the satellites are near the equator of earth! In researching this I also read that satellite dishes near the equator point straight up versus to the south as they do here in the US!
The boardwalk

Cooper Landing, Alaska

We didn’t take any pictures in Cooper Landing since it was pretty steady rain the entire 3 days. We had planned a float trip and wildlife center trip but canceled both due to the rain. We did make a trip out to Kenai and got a few natures photos along the way though.