Milford Sound (or Fiord)

Sunday, December 13, 2009     Dunedin, New Zealand

Yesterday, Saturday, we cruised through the famous Milford Sound and the Dusky Sound.  The weather in the morning was overcast, foggy, and raining, so I don't have any photos of Milford Sound  - - lousy weather for photography.  I do have some nice pictures of the Dusky Sound, further south, but they're still in the camera.  I'll post a couple of them in a few days.

We learned that there is a difference between a sound and a fiord, and that the "sounds" on the western side of the South Island are misnamed.  They are actually fiords, just like in Norway.  A sound is a flooded river valley, which happens when sea level rises and/or the river valley subsides.  River valleys are characteristically V-shaped, with walls that do not exceed about 35-40 degrees in steepness.  This is what the solids mechanics engineers call the "maximum angle of repose".  Fiords, on the other hand, were carved by glaciers during one of the recent ice ages.  They are characterized by a U-shaped cross-section, with potentially very steep or sheer cliffs toward the top, and by the presence of "hanging valleys", the truncated end of a former tributary river which has been cut off by the erosion of the advancing main glacier flow.  This results in spectacular waterfalls as the stream runs out of riverbed and plummets over the edge of the sheer cliff face.  The New Zealish "sounds" are actually glacial fiords.

Tasmania

Wednesday, December 9, 2009     Burnie, Tasmania, Australia

Tasmania is a large island off the southeast coast of Australia, and is one of the 6 states of Australia.  Burnie is a small port city of about 20,000 on the north coast.  We took a bus excursion overland to the southwest into the heart of Tasmania, to the Cradle Mountain National Park.  Tasmania is hilly-to-mountainous, and the landscape ranges from lush and verdant to semi-arid.  Something like 80% of it is tied up in protected wilderness areas and national parks.  The rest hosts some very productive and important agriculture, including high-value crops like pyrethrum (for natural insecticides) and opium poppies (for legitimate pharmaceutical intermediates).  It is the home of the endangered Tasmanian Devil and several other unique species.   Here is a picture of a wild wombat which was kind enough to pose for the camera.

One of the stops in the national park was the reconstructed chalet of one August Weindorfer, a pioneer in the area in the 1920's and 1930's.

Throughout the forests in this part of Tasmania there are prominent stands of dead trees with white bark.  The tour guide explained:

"Several years ago we had a young, inexperienced botanist come through these parts planting trees - - only he planted many of the seeds upside-down and the roots came up, which is what you see today."

There's another story that the seeds came from the northern hemisphere and they were just putting out their roots in what they thought was the proper direction.

On the way back from the national park we stopped in the village of Sheffield, known as the Town of Murals.  They have had several competitions whereby international mural artists submit plans for mural paintings they would like to produce, in each case proposed for a particular blank wall on a building in town.  The proposals are judged, winners are selected, and the artists produce their mural paintings, for which they are paid.  Here is one illustrating the "post office tree".  In the late 19th century this was commercial timber country - rugged, with only primitive trails for the logs and the loggers.  The men would be out in the forest for several weeks at a time, but they would receive mail from loved ones, and would write letters to send.  So twice a week the postmaster in Sheffield would ride out on his mule and leave the mail in marked hollowed-out tree trunks, from which he would also pick up outgoing mail.

ANZAC Memorials, WWI Battle of Gallipoli

ANZAC Memorials, WWI Battle of Gallipoli

In Sydney, in Melbourne, and in Canberra there is a memorial to the soldiers of Australia and New Zealand who were casualties in the World War I battle of Gallipoli.  ANZAC means the Australia and New Zealand Army Corps, fighting under the British High Command.  I won't cover the whole story here, but it would be worth your while to Google it.  It looms large in the national memories of both countries and is one of the essential pieces of history necessary to accurately understand the relationship of Australia and New Zealand with the British Empire.  It is also a classic of military history - one of those enormous blunders and miscalculations that is analyzed and taught in military academies of many countries.

Early in WWI the young Winston Churchill, serving as First Lord of the Admiralty (sort of like the US Secretary of the Navy) advocated for a strategic attack on the Bosporus Straits and the capture of Istanbul in order to neutralize the Ottoman Empire, which was one of the Axis powers allied with Germany, Prussia, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire.  It was a good idea poorly executed, under-resourced, launched without adequate information about either the terrain or the strength and determination of the enemy Turks.  The initial attack was especially pathetic, poorly thought out, and executed without commitment, which totally blew the element of surprise.  It dragged on for six months, leading to high casualties for the British, French, and ANZAC forces, and even higher losses for the defending Turks.  It was the theater for legendary inspiring acts of heroism and military competence on both sides, and established a reputation for excellence, daring, sacrifice, and inspired leadership of the ANZAC forces which is still a basis for pride among Aussies and Kiwis to this day.  The losses suffered by the ANZAC regiments in proportion to their national population were staggering even by the bloodthirsty standards of WWI.  My friend David from New Zealand told us the story of the men in his hometown, a small village of only a few hundred at the time.  I forget the exact numbers, but they sent off to war something like 70 young men, and only 3 returned.

I was struck by the understated, polite presentation of the history at the Sydney Memorial.  It emphasized the bravery and sacrifice of the ANZAC troops, the suicidal but ultimately successful defense by the defending Turks, and the ingenuity of the ANZAC in their last stand to cover the orderly and clandestine retreat of the rest of the British forces.  And yet, I know from my reading of military history that this episode was deeply resented by Australia and New Zealand.  It is widely analyzed as the tragic result of the arrogant, stupid, troglodyte British High Command shamelessly exploiting the colonials.  It is often called "Churchill's Blunder".  The British insisted on imposing British commanders over the ANZAC troops, denying them the superior leadership of their own demonstrably more capable officers. The British imposed standard (obsolete, ineffective) British methods and doctrine, stifling the creativity and initiative that ANZAC later demonstrated when they finally gained control of the high command of ANZAC.  But this is barely hinted at in the memorial.  It just shows how susceptible the public teaching of history is to political factors and points of view.  Some people scorn "revisionism", but we need the efforts of professional historical research and the thinking of iconoclasts to keep improving our grasp of the truth.  THE TRUTH is seldom simple or straightforward.  It is important to read things that we disagree with, or don't like, or that contradict the "received text".  I am convinced that our children don't really begin to be truly educated until they go to college and read stuff that their parents wouldn't approve of.

Melbourne in the Rain

Tuesday, December 8, 2009     Melbourne, Australia

We sailed (actually, "dieseled") from Sydney Sunday evening and plowed through the open ocean at about 18 knots all night, all day Monday, and arrived in Melbourne Tuesday morning.  We intended to do just two things:  visit the Victoria State Library to take advantage of its free internet, and visit the Royal Botanic Gardens, with a possible side trip to the nearby Melbourne Cricket Fields, world-reknowned among those familiar with the Sport of the Commonwealth and strongly recommended to us by our good friend David who is a native of New Zealand.  Sorry, David!  It was raining all day long, and we didn't even make it to the Royal Botanic Garden, let alone the bloody cricket field!  We didn't intend to hang out all day at the Library, but that's what happened.  It was Tyler's fault.  He started a file synchronization with his Apple MobileMe iDisk account (anybody know what I'm talking about?).  Tragically there was an awful bottleneck somewhere in the system and it took forever - - well, actually, about 4 hours, and even after that long it still wasn't finished so we just cut the cord and did a forced shutdown.  "Yanks' Melbourne Holiday Ruined by Enslavement to Computer"

We will spend a good week or so back in Melbourne after we leave New Zealand at the end of March, on our way back to the US.  It's a great city, and I think we will like it better then Sydney.

Here's a picture of Tyler huddled on the small veranda at the stern of the ship on our deck 7 (of 10).

Friday in Sydney

Friday December 4, 2009                      Sydney, Australia

Sydney is, in general, a very expensive city.  Restaurants in particular are high.  We went out to the Circular Quay and visited the Overseas Passenger Terminal where our cruise ship, Holland America's Volendam, will dock Sunday morning.  A tourist guidebook highly recommended the Quay restaurant in that building, and we were ready for a good dinner.  Fortunately we looked at the menu posted on the window outside.  Four course dinner, fixed price, $155 each!  I figure that restaurants like this purposely set their prices outrageously high in order to keep out the riff-raff like us.  It certainly was effective at that purpose!  Instead we went back to Potts Point in the vicinity of our hotel and ate at Maggie's, a very nice Bavarian/German restaurant.

By the way, the Australian dollar is close to the same value as the US dollar, about AUS$1.10 per USD.

One of the real bargains in Sydney is the 7-day CityRail TravelPass.  For $38 each, you have unlimited travel on the extensive train system, all ferries, and the  city buses.  We have made good use of it, including a ferry ride across the bay to the Taronga Zoo.  So now I have live video of an authentic red kangaroo.  Paula's highlight was seeing live a critter called a quoll.  This was particularly meaningful because she had made a Halloween costume of this creature for our son Nathan - - at Nathan's request.    Overall, though, the zoo was disappointing.  Much of it was closed or cordoned off for construction and remodeling, including the Platypus pond.

We revisited the Domain park, formerly the domain of the colonial governor.  Here is a proper picture of the famed Sydney Opera House and the Harbor Bridge, taken from a lookout point in the park.

Here is Paula sitting in "Mrs. McQuarrie's Chair".  Governor McQuarrie was the first ruler of the Australia colony, and had great influence over the early development of western civilization on this continent.  His wife had this bench carved out of the rock, and most days she would walk down here, right next to the water, and sit and read or visit with friends.

It is summer here in Australia, and many of the young women are wearing miniskirts - - some would be more appropriately called microskirts.  Today was particularly windy.  As we were walking along, a gust blew one girl's skirt completely up around her waist.  As she struggled to get it back down, a fellow next to us smiled at her and said, "Airy, ain't it?"   She shot back, "Whadja expect - feathers?"

If this is Thursday, we must be in Sydney

Thursday, 3 Dec 2009    Sydney, Australia

On Wednesday we ascended the Sydney Tower and looked around this amazing, convoluted city.  The view of part of the back side of the famous Opera House wasn't much.  We'll have to take a harbor cruise to do it justice.  Otherwise, though, it was spectacular.

For dinner we walked quite a ways from the hotel looking for "Betty's Soup Kitchen",  described in one of the tourist brochures as being something special.  Turns out it was something former - - not there any more.  Paula says that Tyler should have phoned them first to make sure they were open.  Tyler says that would be like stopping to ask for directions - not in the male toolkit.  Eventually we settled on a pretty good Balkan ethnic restaurant.  True to form, Tyler ordered something unpronounceable just to be adventurous.

While we were out walking last night we encountered a bit of an uphill climb that brought to mind an old riddle from the fifth grade:  how is a lazy dog like a newspaper?

A lazy dog is a slow pup.

A slope up is an inclined plane.

And a newspaper is also an ink-lined plane!  Ta-daaa!

We have noted several instances of locals being impolitely frustrated with us slow, uncertain, clueless American tourists.  We had encountered this before in England a couple of years ago as we fiddled with strange coins and unrecognized bus stops rather than efficiently hopping on and off the bus and getting the heck out of other people's way.  It's not the merchants - - it's the other customers or the people on the street or the train, muttering about us, hurling kurt unkind epithets as they brush by.  And it's not the Asians or the Polynesians or the Indians or the Aborigines - - not the people with darker skins and alien faces.  It's the white folks just like us who have been rude or pushy or impatient with us.  It helps for us to have thick skins and the imperative to forgive.  It is also a cautionary lesson for us to remember back home when we are frustrated by slow, uncertain, clueless people in our way.

Thursday was our day in the park.  We spent hours walking through the Royal Botanical Garden, marveling at all  of the strange plants that we had never seen before.  It was quite a treat for Paula, the botanist, and even Tyler found it worth the visit.

The Garden was home to thousands of Grey Flying-Fox bats, hanging from the upper branches of trees, or flying around.  They have overpopulated the park and lost their welcome by damaging many of the trees, so now there is a movement afoot to try to discourage them from taking up residence.  After all, it is NOT the Royal Bat-anical Garden!

"David Jones" is a large, classy, world-scale department store downtown.  It occupies two connected buildings that take up the better part of two blocks, right next to the Sydney Tower.  The Food Department is the best!  It is reminiscent of Harrod's in London, but even better.  There is a chocolate bar, a cheese and antipasto bar, a meat department, a sushi bar, a bakery, a wine & liquor wing, a deli, a middle eastern section, and on and on.  Most sections have both packaged items for you to buy and take home, and also an eating area and wide selection of ready-to-eats that they will serve up on demand.  Paula is there right now shopping for dinner to bring home and share with Tyler in the hotel room.  We could eat every meal there and not begin to exhaust the possibilities.

Welcome to 33.8 deg south latitude!

Tuesday, Dec 1, 2009 Eastern Australia Time

We made it to Sydney!  On time, just as scheduled.  Since the flight from Michigan arrived in LAX at 2:00 pm PST and the flight to Sydney wasn't to depart until 10;50 pm, we had wisely reserved a room at a hotel right there at LAX.  That proved to be a very good move.  We were able to relax, get a nice long nap, and have a light dinner before going back to the airport terminal.

The flight from LA to Sydney was 15 hours.  Fortunately the plane (a Boing 777) was only half full, so we were able to lie down (in shifts) across the row of 3 seats.  This was particularly beneficial for Tyler with his back problems, since lying down is about the only position that is pain-free.  Paula can sleep anywhere, anytime, in almost any position.

Watching the flight path on the built-in screen that graces every seat was an educational experience.  We assumed that flights over long stretches of open water would just follow the great circle route.  A great circle is any circumference of the earth.  If you take a globe of the earth and stretch a rubber band around it in any direction, the circle defined by the rubber band is a "great circle" if the plane it defines goes through the center of the earth.  Then the path from any departure to any destination along that circle is the true 3-dimensional shortest path.  In fact, though, the plane flew due west out of LAX until it hit an international flyway going south to Hawaii.  From there it flew a direct course to one pacific island after another, finally going over the Solomon Islands and then setting a course direct to Sydney.  I suppose they do this so they always remain close to an emergency landing airport in case they lose an engine.  The whole flight from LA to Sydney was about 8,000 miles.  We landed Tuesday morning about 8:50 am Sydney time.

By the way, we now at long last have the answer to the traditional question about whether toilets flush clockwise or counterclockwise in the southern hemisphere.  The answer, based on experiments recently conducted in our hotel room in Potts Point (a neighborhood of Sydney):  NEITHER!  Our toilet flushes straight down without any detectable swirling.  What a disappointment!  We'll give further experimental results from Auckland, NZ in a couple of weeks.