18 In retirement

2013: First year of retirement

After my first year of retirement I would recommend it to anyone once you have an adequate amount of independent retirement income. It was hardly complete retirement though. I had a lot of unfinished business to complete as a volunteer. One was running the International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI) in Brisbane in July. I had worked for four years trying to get government funding to no avail. So guess what, on the first work day of 2013 I received a letter from the government telling me of a grant to apply for and spent the first few days of retirement writing a grant application. The worst possible activity! But it turned out successful and so did the IOI, at least from the organisational point of view.

I also kept up other work activity on a voluntary basis. I was persuaded to become the Chairman of the AMC committee, and found myself now on 4 rather than 3 problems committees. I was also still on the executive of two of the Affiliated Study Groups of ICMI (in last terms). In one I have ended up convening a symposium at its coming conference in Denver in July 2014, while also I have a similar position for the other at the ICME conference in Hamburg in 2016.

We had a large amount of stuff, much belonging to Lois, which was housed for $350 per month at a commercial garage in Fyshwick. I was most efficient in emptying that by February, but it does mean that there is still much that is home now and needs sorting. Together with that I have been busy writing these memoirs and in parallel writing a history of the Australian Mathematics Trust (referred to from the front page of this site), and later the descendants of Julius Hein asked me to write everything known about German ancestry..

On 18 May I was very proud to be awarded Honorary Life Membership of the Canberra Mathematical Association at its 50th Birthday Party at ANU's University House by CMA President Erin Gallagher. I am the 7th Life Member.

Albeit I also did quite a lot of travelling, starting with some more unfinished business in Hong Kong in January, a really pleasant week or so in New Zealand's Bay of Islands (never been there before - beautiful place!) in April and a longer time in Europe in September and October. I had been to Lake Garda twice in 2012, seen the mountains and lakes outside the window, and had to work. Now I stayed in the same place, hired a car, visited Florence properly for the first time, and various places in the north, like the gondola up Monte Baldo and Bolzano.

I went up through Germany where the touring highlight was going to the summit of the Zugspitz and staying with the Grabs family in Hamburg where they helped me find much more interesting things about my German ancestors. I also spent time in England where I caught up with English cousins and saw an English Premier League football game.

I also did some travel in Australia, the quirkiest two visits were travelling by train from Brisbane to Charleville, and return, and travelling by train from Sydney to Broken Hill, which is a much more interesting place for the tourist than when I had last been there 40 years before.

The key tourist points are covered photographically in my page "family history". However my trip to Florence (not covered there), although one of the most pleasant places I have ever visited, for food as well as architecture, was related to my interest in Canberra's architecture. I am not only interested in the street layout, where the inner north for example fascinates me, but also some building issues.

The outstanding Sydney and Melbourne buildings, where tourists in Canberra have asked me for direction, were modeled on Florence's Hospital Innocenti (above)

and the courtyard at Florence's Basilica San Lorenzo, the Basilica of the Medici family. The Sydney and Melbourne Buildings faithfully replicate, but are larger more systematic copies.

2014

The year started for me in some frustration. I had had some minor cancer surgery in December, which was completely successful, and an independent operation in March, for which they advised as a precautionary measure I should undergo some radiotherapy. This took place in June and July and by mid-2014 it was undetectable and all seems OK as not detectable also in 2018. It had been precautionary treatment only and unlikely to return. However I did have a little travel organised and this was uninterrupted except the radiotherapy meant I had to forgo attending three consecutive events overseas which had been arranged, namely the IOI in Taiwan, then the WFNMC Conference in Colombia and finally the MCG Conference in Denver. However I was able to undertake the part of the US tour which was scheduled at the conclusion of this planned trip after the treatment was finished.

I don't any longer have formal commitments with AMT, but have interactions at times, such as when one of my books needs a reprint and I have helped them reconstruct the early minutes of the Trust which mysteriously, maybe not so mysteriously, went missing after I retired. However I continued to serve my terms out as Treasurer of WFNMC through 2018, and then re-elected to 2022, and MCG until 2017, when I retired from that group of ICMI because their conferences were changed from synchronising from ICMEs and too expensive to attend. Also I continued for some time to visit the two local primary schools, Turner and Ainslie, to work with talented students, and to write on mathematical problem solving. My times at the local primary schools have ended, I don't do that anymore but I still write and will be the co-chair of the competitions group in Shanghai at ICME in 2020.

February: Taiwan and Hong Kong

In February I was still a member of the IOI International Committee and attended their meeting in Taipei. I also stayed in Hong Kong for a few days while in the region.

April: New Zealand South Island

I was fine in April to visit the South Island of New Zealand, a country which I like very much. Whereas I have been to almost every part of the country in the past, during my hitch-hiking time as a student and a similar trip later on camping with my young son at the time Gregory, not to mention the previous year's trip to Northland, and many other times on work-related matters, I now had a DSLR Nikon camera, and want to pursue photography. I wanted to take photos in the Southern Alps and Stewart Island regions. But a return to Stewart Island was to wait until later in the year.

I started and finished in Christchurch, where I stayed with my old friend and colleague Gus Gale and spent time with other colleague Alan Parris. In between I hired a car and drove to Mt Cook, where I stayed in a motel run by the Hermitage. The weather was not great, but I did manage to take my first helicopter ride, on a Eurocopter squirrel, over to the Western side (view from here to Mt Cook above) and landing on the top of the Tasman Glacier (below) on return. Fabulous experience!

I then drove down to Dunedin where I watched a game of Super Rugby in the new indoor Forsyth Barr Stadium before driving across to Te Anau, where I discovered one can now do an all-day excursion which involves cruising Doubtful Sound from its head out to the sea entrance. A magnificent excursion! I also drove up to Milford Sound, making it three times I have been there, all with fine weather, although this one was cloudy.

August: USA

I still had my plane ticket for which I was funding myself to go to Colombia and Denver. Qantas allowed me to keep the return ticket and found me a later flight over, restricting me to just 18 days, but I decided that was enough to justify it. My main aim was to visit Buffalo and Charlotte. Buffalo was where my great Grandfather Franklin was born. He is somewhat of a mystery, and I hoped there might be material. Charlotte is where Sarah comes from. I was planning to meet her family for the first time. I also had four days left over and I decided on New Orleans.

I first flew to Chicago from Los Angeles, where the passenger next to me was a dog. I later found out in Chicago this is now allowed but only likely into and out of Chicago, where there is a K9 unit which vets for eligible animals (as a K9 officer there told me). I also watched the Cubs and White Sox teams. The Cubs experience was outstanding and I have become a fan.

I had little luck in Buffalo with ancestor research. We knew Charles Franklin had a Swedish mother. I did find infant death records for two children who were the right age to be siblings for Charles, a William Franklin (name of Charles' father) and a Frye Franklin (Frye being a Swedish girls name) but detailed American birth records only exist in church form and I couldn't find any. Buffalo is a nice place with a quaint tram running up the main street.

I was also able to see the nearby Niagara Falls for the first time from the US side and went on a nice cruise on Lake Erie.

In Charlotte I had a fantastic time meeting Sarah's parents Eric and Terri and sister Casey. They were very hospitable, great barbecue at their home one night and took me to see the Charlotte Knights play baseball on another.

There was another unexpected outcome. I knew my great great grandfather Joseph Taylor's brother Francis had migrated from Lincolnshire to Charlotte, and knew the date of death and cemetery and Sarah decided we would look for the grave. With a remarkable amount of detective work we found it, in good condition also, but quite remarkable also as it was one of few surviving headstones in the area and he had no children to take an interest.

October: Port Douglas and Tasmania

I had two interesting Australian trips in October. First Stephanie had booked a house for a family holiday in Port Douglas for a few days. She said it had an extra bedroom if I wanted to go up there also. So I did that and we had a great time. We went up to the Daintree one day, up the gondola to Kuranda another day, I drove down to Cairns one day (had only been there once before, on honeymoon in 1976) and probably the highlight was going out to the Agincourt Reef, in the outer Barrier Reef, 75km off shore on the last day, which also involved another helicopter ride, this time over the outer reef.

I was also invited by Howard and Judith Reeves to stay with them in Hobart for a week, with Bruce Henry also going down from Melbourne. We went to Moma, and one day also out to Lake Pedder and the Gordon Dam. We also stayed a couple of days at Queenstown, visiting also Zeehan and Strahan. It was a bit different than I recalled it from 1966. We went on the old train from Queenstown and another guy and I were made Mr Crotty (him) and Mr Bowes Kelly (me), mining rivals and we became part of the narrative. Other tourists wanted to have photos taken with us all day.

November: Ben graduates with Masters and New Zealand South Island again

After a lot of hard work, substantially part time, Ben was to graduate with a Masters in Geotechnical Engineering at UNSW in November. I timed my trip to Stewart Island to be at the graduation on the way.

I had not left myself time to revisit Stewart Island in April so went back again, staying at Invercargill for a few days and also Dunedin. I had been to Dunedin a few times before, but hadn't realised all that was there, this time exploring Port Chalmers, a very nice area and the container port with one dock was beautiful.

Invercargill was cold and wet, but I visited Bluff, a nice place and went west to the edge of Fiordland. But the main purpose was to visit Stewart Island, which I did across the very choppy Foveaux Strait. The town of Oban with its one pub is much the same as in 1986.

My main aim though was to climb to Observation Rock, stay there for a while taking in Paterson Inlet, one of the world's most pristine waterways, and it lived up to my expectation and recollection.

2015

As has become the case I returned to Canberra in the New Year after Christmas in Adelaide. In January I went to all seven Asian Cup games in Canberra, including the memorable quarterfinal between Iran and Iraq. In February I spent a few days down at Jindabyne and during the long weekend (and more) went to Melbourne to do some wine touring and dining with friends John Dowsey, Bruce Henry and Giovanna Vardaro. Later in March I went to Adelaide to stay in my new room at Stephanie's rebuilt house and watched the World Cricket Cup Quarterfinal in which Australia beat Pakistan.

April: Auckland and Rotorua

I had never been to Eden Park but this year the Brumbies were playing there, so I went over and stayed on for a week or so with a hire car and doing day trips in the region.

May and June: Chile and Brazil

I went to South America, focused on seeing Brasilia and going down to Chile's Lakes District.

Brasilia is an eye-opener, with the main boulevardes and Niemeyer's national buildings outstanding. Above is the Cathedral, which he was happy to design, even being an atheist. And below is the Congress, with separate buildings for the two houses.

It is not a pedestrian-friendly place and they could do with work on upgrading this aspect.

I also stayed at Puerto Montt, with a room overlooking Relancavi Sound and a view behind the hotel of Calbuco Volcano, and finished spending a few days in Santiago, staying in the restaurant friendly Las Condes district.

June: Order of Australia

On the Queen's Birthday in June I was announced as being appointed an Officer in the Order of Australia (AO), "for distinguished service to education, and to youth, particularly through the development of mathematical competitions and challenges for students, as an academic, and to professional learning associations".

Until I had received notification of this honour before the announcement, I had no inkling that anyone had even nominated me, and so this was a major surprise, and was a rather overwhelming occasion. In the early morning I was interviewed on the local ABC station by Phillip Clark. Then during the remainder of the morning I had two TV crews visit my house. Together with this I had many visits and messages by family and friends, which continued over the next few weeks.

The actual investiture took place at Government House, Canberra, on 18 September, with Stephanie being able to come over from Adelaide to be present with brother Gregory and attend with me a black tie dinner, also at Government House, hosted by the Governor General, Sir Peter Cosgrove AK MC. Benjamin had recently left Australia to live in London, where Sarah had received a promotion with Bloomberg. I was happy that AMT Board Chairman over my last 8 years, Greg Taylor AO, was able to attend. The above photo with the Governor General is at the investiture itself.

After the investiture, the picture above shows Greg Taylor AO, Gregory and Stephanie with me, on the Government House grounds.

2016

2016 was a pretty good year, with the birth in London of Ben's and Sarah's first child, another granddaughter, Sydney, and maintaining my fitness on the bike, but due to breaking my left humerus in April and a cold winter, spent more time on the indoor exercise bike than outside. The two overseas trips were as follows.

July and August: Germany and England

I spent the last ten days of July in Hamburg, attending ICME-13, which meant I had attended all of these conferences since ICME-5 in Adelaide in 1984. I gave an invited lecture, Some Reflections, Some Suggestions, in which I reviewed the state of WFNMC and offered future research directions. I also co-chaired a discussion group on mathematics houses with Ali Rejali. I felt as though I was back at work, and it was nice to catch up with international colleagues who I had not seen for 4 years. I was also able to catch up with the Grabs family, attended Jette's second birthday and discovered some more family history with Gerhard Paasch and Ulf Bormann at the Staatarchiv.

I had planned the German part well in advance and had added London as I knew by then Ben and Sarah would be there. But it was a bonus to see Sydney also during the 2 weeks I was there. I also did some research on the family tree in Chippenham which was not too productive, although it points me to do a later trip to Dublin, and we had a wonderful lunch with all the descendants of Henry Taylor who live in England. My father's first cousin Michael, who is now over 80, came down from near Lincoln for the day with wife Lisa. His son Timothy, a GP in Bridgwater, Somerset, came to London for the day also, as did his daughter Katy, who works in IT in Cambridge. Timothy's son William lives in London doing scientific work with British Rail while Michael's daughter Robin and her husband David live in London also and are graphic designers. We booked a private room at Kings Cross Station.

From left are Lisa, William, Michael, Peter, Benjamin, Sydney, Sarah, Robin, Katy, Timothy, and David.

December: New Zealand

In September Singapore Airlines started flying direct flights between Singapore, Canberra and Wellington, known as the Capital Express. It was the first time Canberra airport had had international flights, except a few years ago where there were flights to Fiji for a short period. I was interested in experiencing this and since I had been in Wellington a number of times in recent years, I hired a car and spent most of my week in and around Napier.

2017

2017 was another good year. My friends in my apartment block do a lot of cruising, most of them on the Holland America Line, so I decided to take it up. During the year I took two cruises, including a blockbuster round Cape Horn and on to the Falkland Islands followed by a few days on the altiplano of Peru and Bolivia. And in November Ben and Sarah welcomed a second child in London while I was in Santiago, another girl, which means I have seven grandchildren, all girls. I did a number of other things locally, several times in Adelaide, and whale watching off Narooma in September. More information on the overseas travel follows.

February: Cruise from Singapore to Hong Kong

So for a first cruise to `test the water' so to speak, I looked for one ending in Hong Kong, as it seemed an opportunity to stay there and present an Erdos Award to Professor KP Shum, who had not been able to receive it in Hamburg in 2016 because his wife was dying of cancer.

I found a cruise from Singapore to Hong Kong on the Volendam, which was a bit of a favourite, since I had seen it in Christchurch and Sydney before. It is a modest 62K tonne ship holding 1432 passengers. It is seen above while anchored off Ha Long Bay. I had been to some of the ports, including Bangkok and Ha Long Bay but there was a lot of new material for me in Koh Samui, Sihanoukville, Saigon, Na Tranh and Da Nang.

The highlight for me was Saigon, which I had not seen. Grander than Hanoi it has a lot of beautiful architecture, such as the Post Office, above, designed by Gustav Eiffel, and many historical places from the War, such as the Presidential Palace and the Continental Hotel.

The week in Hong Kong was nice, headlined by the presentation to Professor Shum. The photo above shows the main guests, who include the number 2 representative of China in Hong Kong. They are, from left to right, Professor Raymond Chan, Head of Mathematics at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Professor Henry Wong, Dean of Science at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, The Honourable Mr Jasper Tsang Yok-sing, President of Hong Kong Legislative Counciil, 2008 to 2016, Professor Tan Tieniu, Vice Minister, Liaison Office of the Central People's Government in the Hong Kong S.A.R., Professor Joseph J.Y. Sung, Vice Chancellor, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Professor Peter Taylor, Member WFNMC Executive, Professor Kar-Ping Shum, Professor Ambrose King, previous Vice Chancellor, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Professor Isabella Wai-yin Poon, Pro Vice Chancellor, Vice President and Professor of Statistics, Chinese University of Hong Kong.

And two colleagues of Professor Shum, also close colleagues of mine, came from Canada and Taiwan to pay their respects. There are 6 of us who style ourselves in a friendly way as the Chinese Mafia, with me being an honorary member. Four of us are at dinner, from left Pak Hong Cheung, Hong Kong, Peter Taylor, Wen Hsien Sun, Taiwan and Andy Liu, Canada. The missing two are Qiu Zhonghu, Beijing and Simon Chua, Philippines.

August: New Zealand

I decided to spend a few days around Wellington, where I like nosing around the various waterfront restaurants. But I have a fascination with Mt Ngauruhoe, one of New Zealand's most active volcanoes, since I saw it in 1986 with Gregory, but did not photograph. So one day I hired a car and drove up there. In several attempts since to photograph it notably from Napier in 2016, I have been unsuccessful, but at least on this occasion I was able to make out the shape of the mountain, even if cloud prevented checking if it was smoking like in 1986.

October and November: South America, Cruising San Antonio to Rio de Janeiro and Altiplano of Peru and Bolivia

My second cruise was on the Zaandam, an identical twin of the Volendam. It went from San Antonio, Chile round several ports to Rio de Janeiro, rounding Cape Horn and landing on the Falklands. I had been to some places before, including Puerto Montt, Ushuaia and Buenos Aires but otherwise all was new. Then I experienced the altiplano of Peru and Bolivia, including Pun on Lake Titicaca in Peru and La Paz in Bolivia, the only city where gondolas form the spine of public transport. Some highlights are shown below.

The Zaandam berthed at Punta Arenas, Chile.

Rounding Cape Horn on a chilly morning at 0530.

The social club at Fitzroy, south of Port Stanley, Falkland Islands.

2018

I continued travelling in 2018.

January: Indonesia

This was another Volendam Cruise, going from Singapore to Singapore, via Jakarta, Sembarang, Surabaya, Komodo Island, Lombok, Bali and Probolinggo.

April: New Zealand (twice)

Originally it was to see the Brumbies play in New Zealand and visit Invercargill and Stewart Island, but I managed to see my friend Alan Parris in Christchurch before he died, and to return for his funeral and give a eulogy.

July and August: Austria, UK and Rotterdam to Boston via Iceland and Greenland

I started in Graz, where the WFNMC Conference was held and I gave an invited paper on links between competitions and research. I then went to London, staying in a hotel near Docklands Light Rail and close to Ben, Sarah and the girls. Then I went to Rotterdam where I joined MS Rotterdam for a voyage through Dublin, Glasgow where I took a Stirling Castle excursion, Skye, Iceland, Greenland and down the Canadian coast to Boston. Susan and Tony were there, Tom is a Hyatt Executive and I not only learned a lot of the War of Independence but we also all went to a Boston Redsox game.

November and December: Across the Caribbean and up the Amazon

This cruise on MS Prinsendam went from Fort Lauderdale, to St Martin, Guadeloupe, Barbados, Devil's Island, up the Amazon to Manaus and back, Tobago, Grenada, Santo Domingo and back to Fort Lauderdale.

2019

There was more overseas travel in 2019.

January and February: Doha and Marrakech

I spent 3 days in Doha and a week in Marrakech. The latter included a trip into the Atlas Mountains. There are some similarities between the two countries, both Moslem, peaceful and having large modernised versions of the traditional souqs.

Mt Fuji at its finest, from Shimizu

October: Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda

On this trip I first booked a land safari from Nairobi to Nairobi through Northern Tanzania. This took me though the Lake Manyara, Ngorongoro Crater and Serengeti wildlife parks by Landcruiser and "glamping" in some of those parts, and Olduvai Gorge, where the earliest examples of human remains were found, due to Louis Leakey and his wife and son. I was originally interested because Lois had been to at least Ngorongoro and Olduvai, and probably Serengeti, but it turned out to be a massively interesting safari with pleasant company also.

The three wildlife parks were absolutely full of all available animals, although the Rhinoceros is scarce and I didn't see any of them. The easiest to find included zebras, wildebeest, hippopotamus, elephants, lions, giraffes, but there were a lot of others. The above lion in Serengeti looked like the opening lion in an MGM film.

After returning to Nairobi I flew to Entebbe and then down to a gravel airstrip at Kihihi. From there I was taken to the Bwindi Inpenetrable Park, a thick jungle on the border with Ruanda and DR Congo, with all three of these countries have jungles on the border which are mountain gorilla habitats. We were told that there are 400 gorillas in the Bwindi jungle, in families of various structures maybe up to more than 10, but many with a silverback male and about 3 females and children. They said the youngest in the jungle at present was just 2 weeks old. I had the fortune of being sent to the family with the 2yo, but it was hard work, possibly the hardest I ever endured with steep up and down sections, soft to wet surface and no paths. I thought I might to have to give up and be carried out but I made it and it was amazing. First we encountered the 17 year old mother feeding the baby, then she disappeared. Then the silverback appeared in all his glory.

We didn't know it at the time but after feeding she had passed the baby to the silverback and you can see that he is here holding the baby. Later he walked out past me when the others in my group had gone slightly ahead and walked past me with the baby. 

October, November: Circumnavigation of Australia, Komodo Island

I had not expected to do a tour in Australia or New Zealand but I noticed a tour around Australia which happened to be in Adelaide on a Sunday, when Stephanie and family might be free to come aboard, and there were a few places like Broome, which I might otherwise never see. This turned out to to be a beautiful month, starting from Sydney with a brilliant sailaway, then Airlie Beach (where I'd never been), Townsville, Cairns, Darwin, Komodo Island (where I'd been the year before), Broome, Exmouth, Geraldton, Perth, Albany, Adelaide, Kangaroo Island, Melbourne, Burnie and return to Sydney.

As it happned Darwin had developed significantly since I had been there, the dragons were more active than on my previous visit and Broome was a treasure, especially visiting the pearl factory. Exmouth we missed due to winds, as later Kangaroo Island. Geraldton was very nice and far more important than I realised. Perth gave me the chance to make my first visit to Rottnest Island. Albany I had visited before but went to a winery and some scenic parts. Stephanie and family hopefully enjoyed their dinner. Melbourne and Burnie were also good.

2020

The year started off with good travel, but then the pandemic.

January: South America and Antarctica

So the year started with a flight on a Qantas 747 for the last time, upper deck of VH-EBB Nullabor, seat 16J. Rather nostalgic. I got to Santiago a day early, stayed as I have before at the Airport holiday Inn and boarded MS Zaandam (which I had boarded on my South American voyage in 2017) at San Antonio. We were supposed to go to three new ports for me, but for reasons relating to rough seas we missed Castro (Chile) and Puerto Madryn (Argentina), but Puerto Chacabuco (Chile) quite inland at the end of a long channel was a nice new one.

At Puerto Montt, the volcano which erupted just before my 2015 visit, came into view as a backdrop much better than I had seen in 2015 or 2017.

South of Puerto Chacabuco we came up to the face of the Tempanos Glacier, an impressive sight which I had not seen last time. Glacier Alley was beautiful again as was Puerto Arenas interesting.

The next stop was Ushuaia, my third visit there now. Very nice place. The above shows a restaurant cooking beef in one of the common Argentine ways. In the afternoon I went out on the Beagle Channel again, looking for wildlife and out to the famous lighthouse.

Then on to Cape Horn (see 2017 photo above) and Antarctica.

Antarctica is a wonderful place, beautiful scenery and wildlife. We were on the western side of the Antarctic Peninsula, particularly in the region around Anvers and Brabant Islands. Above is a sample,  at Cuverville Island. Ice and snow are everywhere, filling every valley and wherever it can't fall into the sea.

And the icebergs! Many of them and all very symmetrical shapes.

Next it was to the Falkland Islands, my second visit. The first thing you see as you get off the tender is the Globe Tavern.

As you walk along the main street, there is the Anglican Cathedral (southernmost in the world), the Catholic Church, the Post Office, bank, Parliament House and finally the War Memorial and the Memorial for Margaret Thatcher (above). There is also further on a comfortable looking Government House. Last time here I went south to Fitzroy where a number of Welsh Guards were killed. This time my excursion took me west, past Mount Harriett to Estancia, where there is an arm of the sea from the north.

We missed the next port, Puerto Madryn, due to difficult seas, but then went on to Montevideo, which I had also visited in 2017.  Its Parliament Building, above is ranked in the world's top ten.

Montevideo also has the historic Centenary Stadium, where the first World Cup, won by Uruguay in 1930, was played.

The final stop was Buenos Aires. I had been there a few times before but this time was able to see it better and get good photos of the main sites. As with most Latin cities, the cemeteries are rather elaborate, and this one has the burial spot of Eva Peron.

There is the beautiful 9th July Avenue, the widest street in the world, and all sorts of national buildings in its region. And of course the tango.

February: Tasmania and New Zealand

In February I took a 14 day cruise from Sydney to Auckland, again on MS Maasdam, via Port Arthur, Hobart, where I caught up with Howard and Judith Reeves, and several parts of New Zealand, some of which I had seen before, but some new ones, particularly Dusky Sound, the Taieri Railway from Dunedin and in a surprise White Island, but also some old favourites, like Paterson Inlet on Stewart Island and Wellington.

This is looking up Breaksea Sound, a branch of Dusky Sound. As one goes south from Milford Sound the mountains become lower. 

This is a shy albatross flying over Paterson Inlet, Stewart Island, one of my favourite spots.

This is Wingatui Viaduct, one of the highlights of the Taieri train ride from Dunedin.

On the last day, after leaving Mount Maunganui, we expected to do scenic cruising along the Corramandel Peninsula. Instead, to my surprise, the ship went back to White Island, where several passengers on MS Ovation of the Seas had died a couple of months before while the volcano erupted while they were walking along the crater. We pulled up nearby giving a good view of the crater (see above).

Pandemic

On 1 March I returned home from Auckland, planning to be on a nice voyage in the Caribbean and through the Panama Canal later in the month. On 9 March the Covid-19 virus was starting to make its mark and the Australian government issued an advisory suggesting Australians should reconsider any proposed travel. They sometimes recommend against travel to places safer than Sydney, so it did not seem too serious. On 12 March the WHO declared a pandemic and I realised that all travel was off. I had 7 trips planned in the following 12 months and one by one they were all cancelled.

I got used over some time being bunkered down, and for several months just stayed at home, albeit getting plenty of exercise on my exercise bike and out on the bike paths, and walking. I started getting takeaway meals from restaurants. By June restrictions in the ACT were lifted and ACT residents were allowed to visit anywhere in NSW, although more distant borders remained closed. In late June a second wave started in Melbourne after the national active figures had got down to just 127 active cases, but in Melbourne it had got out of control and NSW closed the Victorian border. I got to Narooma once and Sydney twice, but in the middle of July Sydney started to get some infections after a Melbourne man had gone into a pub in Casula.

2021

The pandemic was still a problem through 2021 but there was a more promising start with fairly free travel through Australia except Victoria, and I got in one great trip, in May a pane flight to Horn Island, then by ferry for a day on Thursday Island, then a ferry to Saesia on the mainland, from where we were able to reach the tip of Cape York.

What then followed was a 6 day safari by 4WD bus down through the peninsula to Cairns. This included stays in Banrock Station, Weipa, Musgrave roadhouse (where I was able to feed some freswater crocodiles and Cooktown,

But the delta strain took hold, and we were in severe lockdown mode, in Canberra from about 12 August for most of the remainder of the year.

Under strict conditions I did get to Adelaide for Christmas, but while there the omicron variant appeared and spread, and I took a flight home while still available.

2022

2022 was bad for a while with omicron but I did manage some memorable times.

In May I had two different holidays, one on Lord Howe Island and the other on Norfolk Island. The picture above is of Ball's Pyramid, 23 kilometres from Lord Howe Island, and at 562 metres high is the tallest sea stack in the world.

Then in late July I managed to join the Ghan in Darwin and had a memorable 3 night and 4 days travelling to Adelaide. There were about 25 of us all in a block booking by my travel agent.

On the first afternoon we stopped at Katherine and had an excursion on the Katherine Gorge.

The next day was in Alice Springs and I got a flight on a Piper Chieftain to Uluru (shown above) for the afternoon.

In the evening we had dinner at the Telegraph Station.

Then the next day was in Coober Pedy, exploring underground mines, having lunch in an underground restaurant and in the afternoon a drive to the nearby Breakaway  Mountains, which I had not heard of, but were competitive in complexity and colour with Uluru and the Olgas.

Later in 2022 it was time to test cruising again. I sailed on a 35 night cruise around Austrlia on MS Noordam, which also included two ports in Papua New Guinea. We needed to be vaccinated and record a negative covid-19 test before boarding, and were required to wear masks while indoors except when eating and drinking, but otherwise the cruise was quite normal. There were a small number of cases, normally picked up on shore, and such cases were required to isolate in a supplied verandah cabin for 7 days.

2023

Buoyed by that confidence, in January and February I flew to Auckland for a 15 night cruise to Sydney via the easten ports of New Zealand, Fiordland, Melbourne and Burnie. From Burnie I took an excursion down to Cradle Mountain.

General Comments

Probably most important, for my health is living in the inner north I have great opportunity to exercise and appreciate Griffin's architecture, by riding one of my bicycles. I have described this interest in Chapter 13, but it is really the most beautiful place to live, with streets forming mathematical patterns often with straight lines giving nice aspect, but with beautiful tree plantings, a different species for each street (mine is a canopy of Lusitanian Oak). Because North Canberra was designed for the workers, the houses are often very modest, despite the obvious high land value they stand on, giving a most unusual effect. The area also reminds me of the two "Bryce" authors, as I say, Bryce Courtenay and Bill Bryson. Bryson wrote his Canberra chapter of Down Under while staying in the hotel opposite my house, and his adventures walking around the blocks near the hotel I can clearly relate to, even if he does use undue artistic licence. And Bryce Courtenay, who had lived in South Africa and then in Sydney for many years, chose to live his last years in the inner north of Canberra, often being seen by neighbours walking his dog around his suburb.  He is now deceased and his grave at Hall cemetery is only a couple of graves away from that of one of my friends. As well as this I am close enough to Lake Burley Griffin on days when I feel more energetic, and ride around it, where there is a lovely uninterrupted bike path, which involves 44km for a full circuit of the lake from my house. 

Above all, where I live, in a large apartment block, I have many friends, drink a lot of coffee with them and am a member of the apartment block's trivia team. Very pleasant place.