A recent photo.............

[Ken Fitzgerald]

A few weeks ago I took this photo......


Sunset......

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Kata Tjuta

[Shawn Pixley]

Very nice!

[Ken Fitzgerald]

A couple more.............

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The coast along the Great Ocean Road near Melbourne


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A view of some of the 12 Apostles.....

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The view from the outside seating at the Sir Edmund Hillary Café and Bar....Mt. Cook


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What a view!

[Lee Schierer]

A few weeks ago I took this photo......


Sunset......

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Kata Tjuta

That photo looks just like the scene that used to start the Nature shows on public television, all you needed was a deer silhouette on the horizon.

[Rich Riddle]

Who knew Idaho looked so pretty? Never seen pictures like those of Idaho.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

..............because those weren't taken in Idaho........Kata Tjuda is in the Northern Territories, Australia near Uluru/Ayers Rock....... The 12 Apostles and Great Ocean Road photos are near Melbourne, Australia and Mt. Cook is on the South Island of New Zealand......

[Ole Anderson]

Very nice Ken, here is a pic I took last night looking out over the Gulf sunset.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Nice photo Ole!

[Jim Matthews]

I'm impressed that you would venture so far afield.

Have you much contact with locals, while travelling?
I still can't understand why people who lived in such beautiful places,
like Auckland or Lewiston would bother to go anywhere else.

One of my best ski days was at nearby Silver Mtn. - no passport required!

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Jim,

We toured NZ for 10 days 5 years ago via the generosity of our youngest son and his lovely wife. We never thought we would ever want to travel internationally. That trip just gave us an appetite.

My waking up deaf nearly 4 years ago made me realize how fleeting and precious life and good health is. My wife and I wanted to take a once-in-a-life-time trip while we were still physically able to enjoy it. I dipped into the 401K. We spent 34 days....4 days travel time....14 days in Australia, 14 days in New Zealand and 2 days in Fiji.

We had a lot of contact with locals. In fact, we flew from Melbourne, AUS to Christchurch, NZ and toured both islands of New Zealand by regularly scheduled buses, trains and a ferry from Picton, NZ on the South Island to Wellington on the North Island. The buses would stop at scheduled bus stops and locals got off and on.

I have a friend and former coworker in Christchurch. He is the lead engineer for my former employer on the South Island of NZ and I met him in a corporate school in Milwaukee some 15 years ago. In fact, we had dinner with him and his wife 5 years ago and again this trip. 13 years ago he offered my a job in Dunedin. I turned it down when I found out what the taxes are there.

Here's an example of how much contact we had. We arrived into Paihia, Bay Of Islands, Northland, North Island, NZ as Cyclone Lusi was beginning to come ashore last month. It was about 8:30 at night, the bus depot there is at the marina. There are two long single story buildings separated by a short pier going out into the Pacific Ocean. 3 couples got off there. As luck would dictated, all 3 couples were from the US. The other two couples were from Seattle and were going to share a time share north of the bus stop. We were going to a hotel south of the bus stop. Mind you it was dark. There was one business open, Hansen's Café, at the end of one of the buildings. One Seattle wife is very nearly deaf and is considering a CI. She was questioning me about mine. The other Seattle wife wandered down to the café and asked how we might get a couple taxis to get to our hotels. The owner said "Just a minute!" He came around driving what looked like a shrunken PT Cruiser. It was a much smaller version. It had 2 seats. So a wife sat in the passenger seat, he drove and a husband rode in the back on his hands and knees with the baggage. It was this guys pizza delivery van. He took one couple to their time share. Returned and drove the 2nd couple there. When he returned he loaded us up and drove us to our hotel. Cyclone Lusi was just beginning to slowly come ashore. It was dark, the wind was picking up and we were getting intermittent rain. The hotel we were staying in had little bungalows some of which were some distance from the main office. This guy knew this. He walked in, demanded they give us a room and he would deliver our bags to our room. My wife packs a lot of bags! The desk clerk said a concierge would handle the bags for us. The guy refused any form of payment for giving us a ride! By the time we got to the room, it was 9:00 p.m. raining, blowing and I was happy as I could be to ride in the back of that pizza delivery van!

The next day, we were scheduled for a day long bus tour of Cape Reinga. The sea wall is about 8' behind the buildings at the marina where that café is located. As we passed by the marina, waves were breaking up over the sea wall onto the main road.

About 30 minutes out of town, the guide/driver got a call on the radio. Weather conditions worsened, trip cancelled. We returned to town where the company manager boards stating winds were being clocked at 135-140kph (85 mph) and it would be irresponsible to endanger us. Refunds were given.

For lunch we put on our Goretex-lined mountain parkas and walked through the wind and rain to that café. During the night waves breaking over the seawall had knocked out a large window in his café. We ate lunch there. We tried to walk there that evening but frankly the storm had gotten to the point of it being dangerous, so we ate at the hotel.

The next day we took a cab back to the bus station to wait for our bus to Auckland and we at lunch at the generous guys café.

The train company actually transferred our checked baggage to the ferry company in Picton so we didn't have to drag it a half mile or so. For 2 weeks we traveled by bus, train and 1 ferry ride. It works extremely well in New Zealand.


BTW....we skied Silver Mountain several times but preferred Schweitzer Mountain north of Sandpoint.

[julian abram]

Ken, thanks for the posts of your trip, certainly some beautiful (but wild) country. We had some friends visit NZ & Australia a few years back and gave us some great photos for a screen saver. I was thinking about you earlier this week, I have read your posts about CI. I was visiting a surgical ENT in Little Rock on Tuesday about my worsening hearing, sudden deafness in the right five years ago, about 40% hearing in the left. Not quite enough loss for CI yet but certainly on the road. I read your story on the CI site this morning, gives me hope, thanks for sharing.

[George Bokros]

Thanks for sharing Ken. Beautiful country.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Ken, thanks for the posts of your trip, certainly some beautiful (but wild) country. We had some friends visit NZ & Australia a few years back and gave us some great photos for a screen saver. I was thinking about you earlier this week, I have read your posts about CI. I was visiting a surgical ENT in Little Rock on Tuesday about my worsening hearing, sudden deafness in the right five years ago, about 40% hearing in the left. Not quite enough loss for CI yet but certainly on the road. I read your story on the CI site this morning, gives me hope, thanks for sharing.

Julian,

As you are aware, it's pretty difficult to qualify for a CI.

It's important to note that most people don't have the "rock star" activation I did. Most CI recipients have to rehab for sometime. I have friends who had to rehab for nearly 4 years but they do have good hearing now. My favorite saying with regards to a CI is "Hope for the best.....prepare for worst and celebrate any improved hearing." To even consider the surgery you have to have hope.... Prepare for the worst....what is the worst that can happen? You have the surgery and you are one of the fraction of 1% that a CI doesn't help. I have a friend, well known in the deaf community. This person has a CI and tried to go bilateral. Due to abnormalities in the 2nd cochlea, a properly functioning CI didn't work and after a period of time was explanted.......celebrate any improvement. Any improvement to me justifies celebration. So......basically.....I hope you don't need a CI but if you do.....hope for the best.......prepare for the worst....and celebrate any improvement!

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Here's a few from Tasmania:

We took a tour by boat of the coast of Tasmania......

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The sea cuts some interesting caves in the rocks along the coast of Tasmania...


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Yes, they actually took us into a couple of those caves via boat.....

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Talk about off the grid......if you look close you can see the lighthouse and roofs of 3 houses....one to the immediate left of the lighthouse...one to the immediate right and a 2nd short distance farther to the right. 3 families used to live there and maintain the lighthouse used for navigation.

Off the grid? How did they get provisions, etc?

[Brett Luna]

Those are great pics Ken...but don't let my wife see them! She took her Mom to Australia some years back and has had a hankering to go back ever since.

If you don't mind, I'll toss in a couple of my sunset shots:

http://www.brettluna.com/img/s1/v55/p1166669392-2.jpg
Wetlands — near Eklutna, Alaska (click for larger version) (http://www.brettluna.com/img/s1/v55/p1166669392-5.jpg)

The Eklutna area is just a few minutes from our house in Peters Creek and this was a spur-of-the-moment photo. I looked out our window to see the sunset developing, grabbed my gear, and hopped in the truck. About 5 minutes later, I was on the shoulder of the Glen Highway setting up. An Anchorage police officer even stopped to see what I was up to and make sure I didn't need any help.

http://www.brettluna.com/img/s1/v57/p1166669850-2.jpg
Knik River — Matanuska-Susitna Borough, Alaska (click for larger version) (http://www.brettluna.com/img/s1/v57/p1166669850-5.jpg)

This shot wasn't completely planned. I had gone down to the public boat launch on the Knik River with the goal of capturing a nice sunset but it didn't color up like I had hoped. But while I was there, a family drove down with a boat. I guess they were there to check the launch or decide where they wanted to put in but they didn't put their boat in the water. They just talked about putting their boat in the water...which boaters know is a key aspect of boating. While they were doing that, one of their little girls went to the water's edge. I had seconds to reframe and take this shot before she ran back to the truck after realizing the she was 'in my way.'

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Great sunset shots Brett!

Thanks for sharing!

[Chris Padilla]

Water caves in Idaho?! Whodathunkit?! ;)

Beautiful pics, Ken!

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Chris, it's my wife who is the amateur photographer but she makes me carry her Nikon. I dearly love digital photography as it eliminates the expense of developing 5,000 photographs to find out that 4,800 were not particularly interesting.

Here's one more one taken along a stretch of the Australian coast in an area called "The 12 Apostles".......

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