Author Archives: ontheroadwithdec

The caves on the North Island are quite famous; great limestone excavations made over time by the one of the most passive and vigorous agents on the planet – water. The caves are in an area of rolling mountains, well eroded from their original height. The limestone is from ages ago when these hillsides wereContinue reading “The Caves at Ruakuri & Geysers of Rotorua”

The following is an unillustrated account of the Computer Saga.  The flight from Auckland to Los Angeles was a bit bumpy and the rear of the plane seemed bumpiest. Though there was ample leg-room and plenty of fresh air on this flight I did not sleep much or very well. I arrived at LAX tiredContinue reading “A TSA interaction on my return trip”

Today was the Milford Sound day – what a day. Glorious weather, a great boat trip, and I got to take the small plane flight that returned some of us over the Southern Alps back to Queenstown. The flight was $375 but we paid $325 as we were the after-four departure (go figure). The weatherContinue reading “Queenstown and Milford Sound”

This is about as far south as people seem to be able to live. It is more than 1000 miles from Australia and quite a bit further south. The flight from Sydney is about 2.5 hours and we arrived in the early afternoon. Jack Clyne met us and we were in the Rydges Hotel byContinue reading “New Zealand is beautiful….but”

Sydney is a nice city, as I have mentioned, and quite expensive. (Actually Australia as a whole is expensive – their dollar and the US dollar are just about equal right now and things cost more here.) I have the occasional Diet Coke and have not yet paid less than $3.20 in any kind ofContinue reading “The Last Day in Sydney”

I am a fan of open spaces and remote vistas. However, I realize that as an animal we humans are very social and city life agrees with something in our nature. That being said, I find few cities to be designed to accommodate the broader array of human associations – cities are designed one pieceContinue reading “Sydney is a (nice) City”

Ayer’s Rock and the Olgas or Uluru and Kata Tjuta The ride from Alice to Yalara, where Ayers Rock is located, takes a solid five hours; longer with stops. I think it is a great ride and today was very special. The road south from Alice is the Stuart Highway and the road west toContinue reading “Ayers Rock Is now Uluru”

The Great Red Center of Australia has one town. Alice Springs is 1000 miles in any direction from the next town. There are long long dirt roads to Darwin, Perth, and Adelaide and a blacktop (bitumen here) road that goes about 200 miles to Uluru (Ayers Rock). The rainiest month on record was last monthContinue reading “Alice Springs, Australia’s Outback Town”

The 5000+ foot air in the San Jacinto Mountains was rough on our virus-addled lungs. We walked up in Humber Park and then went on to Black Mountain where we hung out at a fire tower with juncos and hummingbirds – and the forest ranger. Once you are in the mountains amidst the towering pinesContinue reading “Pines to Palms – oops, forgot to post earlier”