Travels WithJohn and Janice

Travel blog

Every trip we've shared since 2011—filter by where we went, when we traveled, or what we explored.

Showing 20 of 236 posts

The Sydney Harbour Bridge

March 6, 20158 min read2015

Dateline March 6, 2015, Sydney, and Then Home

Our last stop. We arrived in Sydney from Narooma and pulled into the Russell Hotel at the Rocks, an old boutique hotel with a wonderful staircase puzzle (cut through two fire-exit doors, up two stairs, down three stairs, to find your room). A few days to wind down a 42-day adventure: a pass on the $250 walk across the Harbour Bridge (we'd rather get high at the pubs, thanks), a Sydney butcher-counter dinner at Phillip's Foote where you cook your own steak, a Saturday market crowded by 3,000 of our closest friends off a cruise ship, a small Pony Lounge dinner we loved so much we went back for the End-of-Vacation supper with Pete and Bunny, and a Sunday round at Moore Park Golf Club that turned out to be eight holes because of a booking-system quirk. The last bottle of Lambert Estate, The Commitment Shiraz, was opened in the Russell's reading room. We donated the chill box to Maxine at the front desk. Then a 24-hour flight, and a landing at Daytona Beach just before midnight on a Monday. Forty-two days, 4,200 miles, fifty-some bottles of wine, six of rum, six of vodka. Goodbye to another adventure with Pete and Bunny.

#australia #new-south-wales #sydney

Kookaburras on the electric wires at Narooma, New South Wales

March 2, 20158 min read2015

Dateline March 2, 2015, Melbourne to Sydney

We enjoyed our final breakfast at Robinsons with Stanley saying his goodbyes, packed the car, and Paul gave us directions to the M-1. His suggestion for the first night was Metung, a small fishing village where Paul's family had summered when he was a boy. From there it was Eden (with golf among the friendliest kangaroos we had met yet), then two nights in Narooma at Anchors Aweigh B&B with Heather and Kerry, where the train ran through the ceiling, the kookaburras on the wires had two chicks, and a crow at Narooma Golf Club stole John's yellow ball and flew with it out over the ocean. A picnic on the way at Bega Valley with prawns, leftover steak, and the last bottle of Lambert Estate sparkling. The Blow Hole at Kiama as we drove north. Then Pete behind the wheel for the run into Sydney, and the keys to our final room at The Russell Hotel on the Rocks. We returned the car to Avis and closed out 4,200 miles of driving between New Zealand and Australia.

#australia #victoria #new-south-wales

Coops Shot Tower at Melbourne Central, Victoria, Australia

February 27, 201511 min read2015

Dateline February 27, 2015, Melbourne, Just a Great City

After our wonderful afternoon with the kangaroos at Anglesea Golf Club, we arrived in Melbourne at Robinsons In The City, a boutique hotel in an 1850s heritage building that began life as Henry William Bennett's bakery. We were welcomed by the General Manager, Paul Humphreys. Three days of city wandering followed: the Royal Mail pub with John's first taste of kangaroo steak (like eating Bambi, but really like eating Joey after a week of golf with them), the Victoria State Library and its beautiful Domed Reading Room, the Coops Shot Tower under a glass canopy in the heart of the central shopping center, a Saturday cricket ticket attempt that failed because India versus Pakistan was sold out, a long Sunday walk through the botanical gardens, the Australian Henley Regatta on the Yarra, the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra practicing in the open, the Shrine of Remembrance with its Ray of Light ceremony, and a round of golf at Albert Park Golf Course laid out around the Grand Prix track. We had Lebanese-Italian on Errol Street to close it out. Melbourne should be at the top of any Australia list.

#australia #victoria #melbourne

The Great Ocean Drive coastline, Victoria, Australia

February 26, 20154 min read2015

Dateline February 26, 2015, The Great Ocean Drive

As we left Port Fairy we knew we were close to starting one of the most beautiful drives in the world. John and Janice had done the drive in 2009; this was Pete and Bunny's first time. The Great Ocean Road is more than a string of fabulous beaches, cute towns, and spectacular cliff and rock formations. It is also a war memorial. Survey work began in August 1918, and thousands of returned WWI soldiers descended on the area with picks, shovels, and horse-drawn carts. The first stage, linking Lorne and Eastern View, was completed in 1922, and the full route was officially opened on November 26, 1932. We drove toward Apollo Bay with frequent stops: Bell's Beach for the surfers, the Bay of Islands for the rock formations, London Bridge (which famously broke off the mainland in 1990 and stranded a few tourists who had to be helicoptered out), the Grotto for the ocean-level view, the Twelve Apostles (which is, historically speaking, a kind of marketing miracle), and the Otway Lighthouse in the Great Otway National Park, where we watched a mother koala let her baby out of her pouch and onto its own little perch in the tree. Apollo Bay for dinner at Casalingo. Onward in the morning.

#australia #victoria #great-ocean-road

The kangaroos at Anglesea Golf Club, Victoria, Australia

February 27, 20153 min read2015

Dateline February 27, 2015, Anglesea Golf Club

We drove out from our motel in Apollo Bay with a planned stop for breakfast at the Wye Cafe, about twenty minutes up the coast. John and Janice noticed on arriving that it was the same cafe they had stopped at on a previous Melbourne to Adelaide drive — a small coincidence to start the day. Then on to Anglesea Golf Club for the round we had been waiting for. Anglesea is famous for the kangaroos who share the fairways with the golfers. Looking out from the clubhouse before our 1:15 tee time, we couldn't see a single one. The pro told us they sleep in the heat of the day and start feeding as it cools. We started on the 10th hole. By the 11th green, our first mob. From there, it was constant. Many of the kangaroos wore collars with names — permanent members of the club, we figured. The course was a good test of golf, except for the part where there are kangaroos everywhere and you cannot stop taking pictures of them. The pictures tell the story.

#australia #victoria #anglesea

The Obelisk at Robe, South Australia

February 18, 20157 min read2015

Dateline February 18, 2015, Robe and Port Fairy, Australia

We drove almost six hours to get to our next destination, Robe, one of the oldest towns in South Australia. We checked into the Harbour View Motel, where Robbie at the front desk offered us an 'upgrade' for an extra hundred dollars (we politely declined). Drinks at the Caledonia Hotel, built in 1858, then dinner at Sails, the best restaurant in town and probably in the province. A morning walk along the cliffs by the lighthouse, breakfast at the Marina Cafe, a lobster pickup at the fish market that became one of our favorite lunches of the trip on a picnic table at Cape Bridgewater. Then north to Port Fairy and the Quamby Homestead, where William and Ailsa host out of a property whose gardens were designed in the 1880s by William Guilfoyle, who ran the Melbourne Botanic Gardens. A round of golf at Port Fairy Golf Club, oceanside and beautiful, where a friendly woman at the bar afterward showed us a photo of the tiger snake she had recently found in her house and warned us about the copperheads on the course. A walk around Griffiths Island, a first wallaby sighting, and a second night at Clonmara Cottages. Onward to the Great Ocean Drive.

#australia #south-australia #victoria

Lambert Estate Winery in the Barossa Valley, South Australia

February 13, 20157 min read2015

Dateline February 13, 2015, Lambert Estate, the Barossa Valley

From New Zealand to Australia. We left Queenstown on an evening flight, with an overnight at the Auckland airport, then on through Melbourne to Adelaide, landing about 11 a.m. We picked up the rental car and pointed it at the Barossa Valley to visit Jim and Pam Lambert at Lambert Estate. We had met Jim and Pam about eight years before through a small online wine company we ran with partners, specializing in boutique wines from around the world, and visiting their winery had been one of the highlights of our last Australia trip in 2009. A great change this time around was meeting their son Kirk and his new wife Vanessa, who is from Peru. The two met in the University of Adelaide's wine science program and are now the winemakers at Lambert Estate. Over two evenings at the property we worked through about thirteen bottles between the four of us and the Lamberts and their friends Kingsley and Kathy, including the flagship Silent Partner Cabernet Sauvignon and the Family Tree Shiraz, which once beat Penfolds Grange nine-to-ten in a Milwaukee blind tasting. We chased kangaroos through the vineyard, dined at the Wanera Wine Bar in Angaston, played pokies (Bunny cleaned up), and slept gratefully in the Lambert Estate Retreat. A wonderful welcome to Australia.

#australia #south-australia #barossa-valley

A koala at the Parndana Wildlife Park on Kangaroo Island, South Australia

February 15, 20157 min read2015

Dateline February 15, 2015, Kangaroo Island, Meet the Koala

We left the Lambert Estate Retreat, headed over to Jim and Pam's to buy a few bottles for the drive to Sydney, and pointed the car at the Cape Jervis ferry through the Adelaide Hills route to Hahndorf, the oldest German town in Australia, settled in 1838 by fifty-four families escaping religious persecution. We strolled the shops and had lunch in town, then caught the 4:00 ferry across to Penneshaw on Kangaroo Island. We were based in Kingscote for two nights. Over a motel dinner that turned into wine and conversation, we met Terry Modern from Victor Harbor, who was on the island for the Kangaroo Island Cup Carnival. The next morning we drove to the Parndana Wildlife Park, fed the smaller, darker island kangaroos in the enclosure, and met Dana, the conservationist who walked us through the koala — marsupial, related to kangaroos not bears, threatened more by drought and chlamydia than by predators, sixteen thousand on the island and ten thousand sterilized to keep the population in balance with the foliage. Two of Dana's rescues had been raised in a burlap bag with formula. Then on to Flinders Chase, where koalas sat in the trees right above our car, and out to the Remarkable Rocks, Admirals Arch, and Weirs Cove on the wild south coast. A wonderful two days.

#australia #south-australia #kangaroo-island

Jack's Point Golf Club, on Lake Wakatipu, beneath the Remarkables Range, South Island, New Zealand

February 10, 20153 min read2015

Dateline February 10, 2015, Jack's Point Golf Club

The first question the pro at Jack's Point gets is whether the course is named for Jack Nicklaus. It is not. It is named for Jack Tewa, known as Māori Jack, who saved two friends from drowning when their boat overturned on Lake Wakatipu in 1862, near what is now the Jack's Point village. He is also credited with the first discovery of gold in the Arrow River that same year, which set off the gold rush in the region. The course is one of the top-rated in the world. Snow fell the night before we played, so the Remarkables Range stood over us in white. On the second hole, an airplane landed on the grass strip just below the tee, then took off almost immediately with a load of skydivers, whose chutes opened against the mountains as we played on. The fourth tee is across a small road and through a stone wall, with views down Lake Wakatipu and out to the high ranges. It is a true links: you do not see the clubhouse again until you walk off the eighteenth green. We agreed that it was the most beautiful and challenging course we had ever played, and we told the pro so. We were rained out at The Hills the next day, and the local advice was that Jack's Point was the better course anyway, so we went back and played it a second time. That second round was the end of our golf in New Zealand. It was a spectacular ending.

#new-zealand #south-island #queenstown

Coming down the road into the valley toward Queenstown and the Millbrook Resort

February 10, 20158 min read2015

Dateline February 10, 2015, Millbrook Resort and Queenstown

We came down into the valley to our final base in New Zealand, the Millbrook Resort, just outside Queenstown. The one-lane bridges in this part of the country are a queueing art form, watching the arrows to figure out who has the right of way. We checked into a two-bedroom cottage on the golf course. It was Pete's birthday on the 6th, so we let him pick dinner; he wanted to eat in. Janice and Bunny made the grocery run and came back with the most beautiful rainbow we had seen in a while. The week that followed was a series of rounds at Millbrook, a side trip to Arrowtown for Stephanie's recommended tapas at La Rumbla, an introduction to New Zealand's Blue Duck vodka, an extra night that Will Owen rescued for us when we found an error in our own schedule, a rained-out tee time at The Hills (refunded), a visit to the Kiwi Birdlife Park, the Queenstown gondola, and two old men attempting the Haka in front of an All Blacks poster. We close out New Zealand at Jack's Point, in the next post.

#new-zealand #south-island #queenstown

John and Pete suited up in flight hats at the Knights of the Sky exhibition, Omaka Aviation Heritage Centre

February 1, 20153 min read2015

Dateline February 1, 2015, To the South Island, the Marlborough Valley, and the Knights of the Sky

We left Wellington early to catch the ferry south, North Island to South Island, a three-hour crossing. Interesting detail: the cars are parked on recessed railroad tracks (with the trains evidently elsewhere that morning). Rainy weather, so the views were less than postcard-perfect, but the ride was enjoyable. On the other side we drove to the Vintners Retreat in the Marlborough Valley, home of some of the best Sauvignon Blanc in the world. We had a few hours of tasting time and used them well. Four wineries: Huia, Glissan, Nautilus Estates, and Wairau River Wines, all in or near Blenheim. We left every one with at least one bottle, and finished the afternoon with ten bottles between us, a mix of Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot. Dinner cooked at the cottage, an old golf movie, an early night. In the morning, on to the Omaka Aviation Heritage Centre, where Sir Peter Jackson's WWI aircraft collection and Weta Workshop dioramas make up the 'Knights of the Sky' exhibition. Pete is an airplane nut, with sixty-five model planes that he flies at home, and he called it the best WWI aircraft display he had ever seen. From there, on to Terrace Downs.

#new-zealand #south-island #marlborough

Sheep mowing the side of the highway on the South Island, New Zealand

February 3, 20155 min read2015

Dateline February 3, 2015, Christchurch

We left the Marlborough Valley early in the morning and drove south toward Christchurch. We made a roadside stop on the way and discovered we were at the Ōhau Point Seal Colony, a New Zealand fur seal breeding ground about twenty-five kilometers north of Kaikōura. Pupping season had just passed, and there were many babies playing on the rocks and in the tidal pools, and a few having lunch with their mothers. In Christchurch we checked into the Classic Villa B&B, an 1850s home where the lovely Alisa met us at the door. The city was four years out from the February 2011 earthquake that killed 185 people and demolished much of the center. The recovery was slow. The shops had moved into temporary buildings on the edge of the reconstruction zone. A San Francisco infrastructure expert who was staying at the B&B told the hostess that Christchurch had taken more damage than San Francisco's quake. We ate lamb burgers for dinner. Janice was wiped out from driving and called it early. At breakfast the next morning, Janice fell into a long conversation with two sheep farmers, and we got a whole education on the NZ sheep and beef business. Then on toward Terrace Downs, where we encountered a herd of sheep doing the highway maintenance work.

#new-zealand #south-island #ohau-point

Terrace Downs golf course in its mountain valley, South Island, New Zealand

February 4, 20153 min read2015

Dateline February 4, 2015, Terrace Downs and Quickenberry B&B

We arrived at Terrace Downs on time, but the wind was blowing about forty miles per hour with gusts up to sixty, so golf was out. The course sits in a beautiful valley surrounded by mountains, and the wind comes howling through. The staff at the clubhouse kindly moved our tee time to the following morning and pointed us toward Methven, a small village nearby with a few cafes. We poked around the stores (hardware first, of course) and had a lovely lunch at Cafe 131. We were booked into the Quickenberry B&B, where we were greeted with the news that we had been 'upgraded' to a villa at the golf course. We suspected an overbooking. Will Owen had told us the previous week's guests had been there with no issues. We did drive back to Quickenberry for dinner and the next morning's breakfast, both of which were exceptional. The villa had nice views over the course and a beautiful moon that evening. The next morning the wind had calmed enough to play. The course was in decent shape, the greens slow, a few blind shots, and the vistas of the mountains and rivers were stunning. By the last five holes, the wind was back at thirty-plus and the golf got a little crazy. Lunch at the clubhouse, where Bunny ordered the Green Lip Mussels. Then on to Lake Tekapo.

#new-zealand #south-island #terrace-downs

Lake Tekapo and the surrounding mountains from the Lodge

February 5, 20157 min read2015

Dateline February 5, 2015, Lake Tekapo, the Lodge, and the Church of the Good Shepherd

Our next stop was Lake Tekapo, where Stephanie and Alistair welcomed us into the Lodge at Lake Tekapo. The first day was cold (10°C) and raining, and the mountains across the lake were bare. Stephanie pointed us at Kohan, the Japanese restaurant down the hill on the lake, where we had fresh alpine salmon sushi raised in the local canals, possibly the best salmon we have ever eaten. In the morning the mountains had snow on them. Over breakfast, we asked Stephanie about her family. She is a fifth-generation New Zealander, and her story turned out to be one of the most remarkable we heard on the whole trip: gold rushes and shepherds in Stirling, Scotland in 1857, a Glasgow doctor who drowned en route to the Chinese mining settlement, a class photo from a 1966 girls' prep school that proved she and Alistair had sat next to each other thirty-six years before they thought they met. After breakfast, on to the Church of the Good Shepherd, the lakeside stone chapel dedicated in 1935 with the plate-glass altar window that opens onto the mountains and the lake. Then the drive to Queenstown, by way of Mt Cook, Lake Wanaka, and the Crown Range Road, on Stephanie's recommendation. Pictures say it all.

#new-zealand #south-island #lake-tekapo

Cape Kidnappers, the Tom Doak design on Julian Robertson's property above the cliffs of Hawke's Bay

January 30, 20154 min read2015

Dateline January 30, 2015, Cape Kidnappers

From Millhills Lodge to Cape Kidnappers, the Tom Doak course on Julian Robertson's six-thousand-acre former sheep farm on Hawke's Bay. The TomTom got us to the entrance in thirty minutes. Then we learned it was another fifteen-minute drive on the inside road just to reach the clubhouse, narrow and winding and lined with speed bumps. Like Kauri Cliffs, we were among only eight players on the course that day. The staff was mostly young Americans on their post-college golf years, one from Penn State, all on their way back to the US to take jobs at courses there. We played the first two holes. We arrived at the third. Peter, Janice, and John all missed the green. Then Bunny stepped up and put it in the cup for her first hole-in-one. From there the course winds in and out of the fingers of land that drop straight off the cliffs, with cows as our gallery and electric fencing going up around us. At the turn the lodge brought down sandwiches. The back nine plays along the cliff edges, with the danger signs to match. Back to Millhills Lodge for Penny's gourmet dinner.

#new-zealand #cape-kidnappers #hawkes-bay

Millhills Lodge, Hawke's Bay, New Zealand, surrounded by Penny's family farms

January 29, 20154 min read2015

Dateline January 29, 2015, Millhills Lodge, Hawke's Bay

After the round at Kinloch, we drove on to Hawke's Bay for a two-night stay at Millhills Lodge. TomTom led us to a small plot of land with several cows looking at us. A call to Sam Jackman told us we were two hundred yards from the actual turn-in. We were greeted by Penny and Sam and their dog Kip, given a tour of the cabins, pointed at the nearest liquor store (the vodka and rum supplies on the trip were running thin), and welcomed in for two of the most enjoyable days of the trip. The lodge sits on several acres surrounded by Penny's family farms, sheep on one side and cattle on the other. Dinner the first night at a place called Diva. The second night, Penny cooked for us at the lodge, a three-course dinner that closed with a Pavlova, and we spent the evening with Penny and Sam over Hawke's Bay wines. Between the two evenings was a day at Cape Kidnappers, where Bunny made her first hole-in-one. Eggs Benedict on the last morning. Hawke's Bay was wonderful.

#new-zealand #hawkes-bay #millhills-lodge

Bunny Warenski with the Callaway ball from her hole-in-one on the third hole at Cape Kidnappers

January 30, 20151 min read2015

Dateline January 30, 2015, Ace Bunny Warenski, Hole in One!

Extra, extra, read all about it. Bunny made her first hole-in-one on the third hole at Cape Kidnappers. Some backstory. The day before, on the practice range at Wairakei, Bunny had set her clubs down on the grass. When she picked them up, there was duck poop on her clubs, her arm, and a little on her shirt. We all told her: bird poop is good luck. We had no idea how right we would turn out to be. The next day, on the third hole at Cape Kidnappers, with a Callaway ball that had a 3 stamped on it, on the 30th day of the month, on the third day in a row of New Zealand golf, Bunny put it in the cup. Cape Kidnappers later sent us a photo of the plaque with her name engraved on it. Bunny's was the second hole-in-one of the year on that course. The first one belonged to a PGA pro.

#new-zealand #cape-kidnappers #hole-in-one

Gulf Harbour Country Club, Robert Trent Jones design on the Whangaparaoa Peninsula north of Auckland

January 26, 20153 min read2015

Dateline January 26, 2015, Golf at Gulf Harbour

Goodbyes after breakfast at Swallow Ridge, then south back toward Auckland for our second round of New Zealand golf at Gulf Harbour, the Robert Trent Jones design that hosted the 1998 World Cup of Golf. Jones likens the course to Pebble Beach. Pete and Bunny had been with us on the Robert Trent Jones Trail in Alabama in 2012, so we were happy to be playing another Jones course together. An early afternoon tee time, a clubhouse sandwich, a few range balls, and out we went. The front nine was a pleasant layout, challenging in spots but not punishing. The back nine climbs up to the cliffs above the Hauraki Gulf, with views back across to Auckland and the Sky Tower in the distance. We absolutely loved the back nine. Off to Panorama Heights in Western Auckland for the night, then south in the morning to our next golf course and our next B&B.

#new-zealand #gulf-harbour #gulf-harbour-country-club

Kauri Cliffs Golf Club, perched above the Bay of Islands on the North Island of New Zealand

January 26, 20153 min read2015

Dateline January 26, 2015, Golf at Kauri Cliffs

A thirty-five-minute drive from Kerikeri took us off the main road and onto a mile of dirt road that had us wondering if TomTom had us lost. Then the gate appeared. Cameron, the assistant golf pro, met us in the drive, loaded our carts, and pointed us out to the course. Seventy-five degrees and sunny, a soft breeze, and only six other players on the course for the whole day. The course was designed by David Harman of Orlando, Florida, who died of lung cancer at fifty-one not long after completing this design. The owner is Julian Robertson, the Tiger Management founder, who fell in love with New Zealand as a young man on a writing year and later built both Kauri Cliffs and Cape Kidnappers on cliffs above the Pacific. The front nine plays over fantastic vistas out to the Bay of Islands. On the back, John birdied ten, birdied eleven, and parred twelve before reality returned on thirteen. Janice shot eighty-three from the men's tees at six thousand-plus yards. Pete and Bunny had a blast. Back to Swallow Ridge for rum and Cokes by the pool and a quiet dinner.

#new-zealand #kauri-cliffs #kauri-cliffs-golf-club

The Sydney Opera House from the harbor, on the ferry out to Watson Bay

January 21, 20154 min read2015

Dateline January 21, 2015, Sydney — The Adventure Begins at Doyle's

In 2010 we had spent a couple of weeks in Australia, primarily to play the great Sandbelt courses around Melbourne, and we ended that trip with a few wonderful days with Jim and Pam Lambert at the Lambert Estate in the Barossa Valley. We had been looking for an excuse to go back ever since. This trip is the excuse. New Zealand and Australia with our friends Pete and Bunny Warenski, who were with us on the Alaska Walkabout and on the Robert Trent Jones Trail in Alabama. We arrived in Sydney Tuesday morning after twenty-four hours of flight time, met up with Pete and Bunny at the hotel, walked the city, and tried to stay awake until evening to outwit the jet lag. The next morning we took the ferry across the harbor (past the Opera House and under the Harbor Bridge) out to Watson Bay and Doyle's, the seafood restaurant we had visited on our last trip to Sydney and had been looking forward to introducing the Warenskis to. Tomorrow we fly to New Zealand.

#australia #sydney #sydney-opera-house