' (Frommers) It is now the premier walking tour area, with small museums, shops, old streets, and fun sights. It also has plenty of hills, so we really stretched our walking muscles that afternoon. We must really have overdone it, because neither of us can remember what we did for dinner that night.
Our last day in Sydney was a busy one. We had yet to see the Australia Museum and the Art Museum. We saw both, and they were terrific. The tourguide at the Australia Museum took us through every section quickly, so we would know what parts to see more leisurely afterwards. I was especially interested in some of the gold exhibits, given Australia had witnessed a number of major gold rushes in the last 150 years. There was a fantastic nature exhibit, with an insect room showing families and species, and the same with birds. The Art Museum contained many Australian and English artworks but also Aboriginal pieces that offered some insight into the cultural differences. Given that the Aborigines had occupied Australia for the last 30,000 years, it is not surprising they developed a unique array of art forms, some now mixed with more modern modes that produce intriguing impressions.
We had made arrangements with VK2BPN to meet at a hotel lobby in Darling Harbour late that afternoon. The lobby was a large area with considerable movement of people, but we spotted each other without difficulty. We then walked together for a while as we chatted, trying to find a pub that was not crowded early Friday evening. I ordered the beers, brands I cannot now remember but which were excellent and we chatted with Peter about life and radio. We had a really lovely time together, but it was soon time to part. Peter dropped us off at a restaurant called Pancakes on the Rocks, which featured chocolate pancakes, among other niceties.
The next morning we had to awaken very early to catch our flight to Christchurch, and the hotel room looked like a cyclone just passed through. We were quite proud that we succeeded in packing our clothing and new acquisitions into our already suitcases! Our visit to Sydney had been terrific and we regret not spending more time there to see the Blue Mountains, wander the neighborhoods and take advantage of the many activities that make it such a vibrant town.
Christchurch. For those who travel, you know what a comforting feeling it is to have friends meet you when you arrive at an airport in a country you have never been to before. Our friends in New Zealand are ZL3GQ, Peter, and Maire! They were there to greet us with smiles and warmth that never faded during our stay with them, which came in two doses -- at the beginning of the visit and a week later. With Maire's guidance we planned a trip of 6 days that would take us south through along the east coast of the South Island through Timaru to Dunedin, west to Queenstown, across the Haast Pass and Lake Wanaka, north to Hokitika and then east through Arthur's Pass back to Christchurch and ZL3GQ again. In between there were many sights to see. We barely had enough time to see the major attractions.
Directly from meeting us at the airport, Peter and Maire took us to the new Antarctica Museum, less than 1 km from the airport. It has some excellent exhibits, including environment oriented analyses of human activities in the Antarctica, abundant photographs of wildlife, and an assortment of scientific exhibits, all well worthwhile. Christchurch is the stopping off place for a number of Antarctic expeditions, including recent ham dxpeditions, such as St. Peters Rock. We then went up Summit Road and to the hilltop on the cable car for a spectacular view of the surrounding area, including Lyttelton Harbour and Akaroa to the east, formed long ago by two adjacent volcanoes. There is a French settlement there and until early in this century it had retained its separate cultural identity. We could also see the Southern Alps to the southwest.
By then it was time to settle in at ZL3GQ's QTH. The house is on several acres but the antenna structures are quite visible some distance off, which probably did more for me than for Nina. However, I sat up front with Peter and talked about macho issues like propagation and antenna limitations while Nina and Maire chatted about social and cultural matters. Actually, it was the latter that we had come to learn about, but it's not easy to disabuse one's self of an opportunity to play with an excellent station like ZL3GQ after a week of near deprivation from headphones. In any event, we had a fantastic dinner of roast lamb; and I soon found myself sitting at Peter's shack. I must digress from radio issues to relate a curious phenomenon that actually began with this meal and ended later in Auckland.
During our stay on the South Island of New Zealand, we found it exceptionally difficult to find lamb in any restaurants. When we did find it, we were served assorted stews or cuts that just weren't what I happen to like, viz., roast leg of lamb. Maire hinted at the outset that this may occur, but with 60 million sheep in New Zealand the notion of having problems finding lamb did not seem likely. The lamb that we ate at ZL3GQ's place was terrific, and it had come from a sheep that had been raised on their property and later butchered locally. (No bambi problem here; the several sheep are not pets!) Later in the trip, when we reached the North Island, lamb appeared in most restaurants, but the best by far was at a restaurant I will mention later. My interest in lamb, incidentally, is not really profound given I do not as a rule eat red meat at home, as a personal dietary preference. We also learned that the tastiest lamb is called hoggett, which is a one year old lamb, but we never found any on a menu.
That evening, I stayed up for several hours and worked a number of JA and W stations, as well as Europeans, on 40 m cw, but conditions really were not terribly good. Peter then suggested I just wait another hour, until 12:30 p.m. local time and the bands would open again and peak. They did. I worked several hundred stations, including a number of FOC members and other friends from North America and Europe. It was like old times at HK0! I finally gave up around 2:30 a.m., which was about 8:30 a.m. East Coast time -- when the band usually dies to ZL. The several VS6, 9V1, HL, BV and BY stations that called were surprises but of course were just local skip from ZL3. The strongest W stations were those you would expect, the guys with big beams in the stratosphere. But even in the big pileups, it was weaker stations that often could be picked out first because they were calling off frequency, just away from the narrow concentration of big gun callers. The big guns, in other words, often called on the same frequency and would cancel themselves out, leaving the weaker signals to be picked up first. No doubt some of the big guns were checking SWR readings when they heard me work a number of plainly small-fry stations first! To be sure, having a beam with height on 40 meters is vastly superior to the typical wire antenna, but sometimes skill can compensate. Skill and the big station are unbeatable!
The next morning, we had our schedule well-planned, but at least we started at a less compulsive hour for the first time on our holiday, like around 9 a.m.! Peter and Maire took us on a tour of the city, largely a meandering about the downtown area with its lovely streets, quiet atmosphere, cleanliness and interesting sights. We spent several hours at the old University of Christchurch, now the Arts Center, which includes a lively Arts and Crafts Market (open weekends). It was really fun. I bought a die (singular of dice) made of rimu (like a white pine) about 8 cm on a side that had different stock transaction decisions on it, and several other hand made items. It was the first time I remember eating Czech fast food, one of the many choices among the vendors in the open area eatery. In the open courtyard, there was music, classical and pleasant rock, under blue skies and perfect temperatures. We also toured the laboratory of Rutherford, who did early atomic chemistry research in Christchurch; several art galleries; outdoor markets; walking tour of the downtown area; the McDougall Art Gallery, which contained a large number of impressive paintings by New Zealand and English artists dating back to the early settlement period of the country.
We also made arrangements to rent a car for a week, which led me to discover that my gold VISA card does not cover waiver of the collision insurance coverage in New Zealand, meaning we had to pay an additional fee of some $8 per day (mandatory) in addition to the rental. One must always be prepared for the anomalies of travel and not be too upset by them. They invariably occur. By this time, were ready for drinks and dinner, so we walked to a hotel in town and treated our wonderful hosts to a memorable meal -- including my urging of a pudding dessert of great caloric content on Peter, who abashedly consumed it with great reverence! By then we were all nearly delirious from the long day and overeating, and headed back to prepare for our departure south the next morning. Maire helped us map out daily activities for the week ahead of us, loaned us maps and offered specific suggestions on sights to see along the way. I had planned on operating again on 40 cw, but midway into my second log page suddenly noticed that the room had gone dark and I was listing to the left on the chair. My eyes had closed, a strong suggestion that it was time to abdicate and hit the sack!
Timaru. Early the next morning, we picked up the rental car and headed south along the east coast of the South Island. As we approached the coast some kilometers out of Christchurch, we began to get lovely views of mountains to the west and sea to the east, with beautiful hilly terrain on both sides. Soon we arrived in Timaru, where we would stop to find ZL4FC, Ray, with whom I had made contact on 40 cw from home and again from ZL3GQ's house. Peter had been raised in Timaru and suggested that Ray was located along the main road, but we stopped in a service station for directions anyway. While Nina inquired inside, a fellow who had been staring at a map adjacent to the station came over to me to ask directions. Right! He was American journalist and immediately offered me sage advice about being particularly careful driving on the left side of the road. Two days before he had been driving along some small rural road not far from Timaru when he made a right turn but forgot to look left and smashed into another car. He was prepared for the worst, but the people whose car he damaged were more concerned about his upset than for their car and invited him to their house for a soothing drink! The police, he was sure, would issue him a violation. Instead, they were courteous and sympathetic and wished him luck. He was so taken with this 'gentility' that he said he would write an article for publication in his San Francisco newspaper. So far I haven't seen a copy of the article he promised to send, but that is not as significant as the story itself.
Anyway, Nina returned with specific directions and we continued through Timaru, a town of I suppose about 35,000 people, and found our way to Ray's QTH. He was out just then, since we were a bit early, but we met his mother in law who showed us to their lovely garden, with roses blooming and various other flowers I had never. Soon Ray arrived, and we had the usual chat among hams. His wife came shortly after that and we had a delightful lunch together. He uses dipoles strung up behind the house at relatively modest heights, but he can be heard on 40 cw! If we were to reach Dunedin during daylight we would have to get moving, so we bid our goodbyes to Ray and family and headed south.
Oamaru. South of Timaru we saw some exceptionally beautiful places. Fancy brought me visions of a beam atop one of the lovely hills just to the right and above us, overlooking the sea to the left of us. A few unexpected turns in the road released me of these thoughts at about the same time Nina made some less than complimentary remarks about the edge of the road and my driving. |
