AUCKLAND, WITH FRIEND

At the Kuala Lumpur airport, you go through a security check twice--once to get into the concourse area and again to get into the waiting area at your departure gate.  I was standing in the security check line for the departure gate when a petite young Chinese woman queued up behind me and started a conversation.  Then, after I was seated in the waiting area, she found me and sat beside me, and we chatted some more before we boarded.  We discovered we were sitting beside each other on the plane, so maybe we were supposed to meet.  

Vera is 27 and has a degree in Telecommunications.  After working in her field for five years, she decided she wanted to do something different.  So she was flying to New Zealand, where she was able to get a work visa for a year, and she is planning to pick fruit.  That's definitely something different.  We parted ways at the Auckland airport with promises to try to connect while we were both there.

We did connect a week later.  I was planning to tour the Art Gallery that day, but she wanted to climb a mountain, which didn't interest me.  So we met for lunch after doing our separate tours and decided to follow the city walk on the Lonely Planet website as an afternoon activity.

We skipped some of the suggested sites that involved shopping--of no interest to either of us--but found some interesting buildings and had a good walk together.  Our first stop was the Town Hall.

Nearby was the Civic Theater where we saw this very interesting wood sculpture.  That modern building behind is the theater.

The Art Gallery was on the walking tour, so we headed back in that direction to get a photo.  It's a beautuful building, and there's an excellent collection of art there.

Then we walked through Albert Park, which is very lovely.  There are some really amazing old trees there, as well as beautiful flower beds.

Our next stop was the university's clock tower.

 And on the campus, grounds, we also saw the Old Governor's House.

We skipped the designer shops and pubs and instead walked toward the wharf.  We cut through a park where, again, there were some gnarly trees with interesting branches that arched over the sidewalk.

At the wharf, there were two big cruise ships docked.  I think we passed by all their passengers on the streets of the city.  

There is water everywhere around Auckland...it's a lucky city to have these harbor views.

I've not befriended many young people on this trip, but Vera and I were good companions despite the 40 year age difference between us.  

EAST COAST WHITE SAND

Kathy and I drove up the east coast, north of Auckland, to have luch with Jenny, a friend of hers, and to tour some of the beaches on this coast.  There was a lovely beach across from the restaurant where we had lunch in the small town of Orewa.

Jenny lives in a lovely neighborhood in Algies Bay and has a great sea view from her home.

We drove to the rather ritzy nearby neighborhood of Omaha where there was a lovely white sand beach and the water was several shades of sea blue.

 I liked this beautiful, almost perfectly shaped Norfolk pine tree.

We also went to another beach, but the view there can't beat the ones you've already seen.  On the drive back to the city,  I got very lucky to capture Auckland's skyline with its Sky Tower while we were stuck in rush hour traffic.  Auckland is a city that's spread out wide and far, and you don't see many skyscrapers outside this downtown area.

Another relaxing day enjoying the gorgeous sea scapes that surround this area of New Zealand.

THE LAND OF KIWIS

The kiwi is the national bird of New Zealand.  It's a flightless bird, and it's unlikely I'll see one since they live in the bush and are very shy.  They're pretty funny looking with their bulbous body and long beak.

The people of New Zealand refer to themselves as Kiwis, too, but they aren't shy or bulbous.  I'm being hosted here in Auckland by two women who I met during the first month of my two-year journey....at the language school in Italy back in September of 2012.  My first week is with Kathy and her husband Gary.  

The third resident of the house is Coco, one of the very few cats I've met who doesn't seem to like me much.  I'm still working on it, but I'm not optimistic that I'll win over this feline.  But she's a beauty.

And I get to enjoy this view from their living room every day.

Despite the fact that I wore a mask on the flight here, I still picked up some virus that had my stomach and head aching.  This is getting very tiresome.  We went out for a drive the day after I arrived, so I got to see a west coast beach with the dark sand before I got hit with the virus.

Further along this coast, we stopped to see the gannet colony at Muriwai.

About 1200 pairs of gannets nest in this area between November and March.  The beach here was also quite beautiful.

We ventured out again yesterday, after I was mostly recovered, to another west coast beach at Piha.

The weather is unseasonably cool, with temperatures in the high 60's and low 70’s F, but since I'm not a surfer or a sunbather any more, it doesn't matter much to me.  I could sit by the sea for hours just listening to the waves rolling in to shore.

It is such a different and wonderful experience to enjoy the beauty of nature.  I like this place a lot!

SIX BAD HAIR DAYS

Connie and I are in Malaysia where it's rained 5 of the 6 days we've been here.  It's been very hot and humid and I miss the cool dry weather we enjoyed in ChiangMai.  We've been exploring the capital city of Kuala Lumpur, which has a population of close to 6 million in the greater metropolitan area and is the largest city in Malaysia.  And we've been doing a fine job finding our way around the city on the public transport system.

On our first day here, we visited the National Museum, a great way to learn about the history of Malaysia which has been occupied by the Portugese, Dutch, and British at various times in its history, as well as by the Japanese during WWII.  It finally achieved independence  from Britain in 1957.  There is a multi-ethnic culture here with Chinese and Indians as the largest minority groups.  The national religion is Islam, and we enjoyed a visit on our second day to the Islamic Arts Museum.

We also went to the Batu Caves on the outskirts of the city.  It was very different from the caves we saw at Halong Bay in northern VietNam.  Here is the entrance.

We climbed about 300 steps to get to the caves, and in the hot humid weather, it was quite a challenge.  My mountain goat muscles hadn't been exercised in a while.

There were several monkeys scampering around the steps.  They're quite aggressive and definitely not intimidated by people.  They're been known to snatch purses and food from visitors.

There are several Hindu shrines within the caves, and there was a religious ceremony taking place in the largest cathedral cave which involved the playing of very discordant music and the cleansing of items of worship.

These two were throwing little pieces of paper into the fire...which may have been the burning bowl ritual where you burn scraps of paper with words written on them representing what you want to eliminate from your life.

When you sit quietly, you can imagine aborigines holding sacred ceremonies in this circular cave that has a circular opening to the heavens.

But the caves are filled now with manmade shrines and images of Hindu gods and godesses.

On the way down, we saw two people on stretchers being carried down the steps and then up again.  I thought at first they were injured, but it was some kind of cleansing ceremony.  Back down at the entrance, there was a kadavi dance in progress, a ceremony for the purpose of asking the Hindu god of wisdom for help in getting through or averting a life calamity.  This dance ceremony involves carrying some kind of burden, in this case a decorated canopy, as well as piercing one's cheeks or tongue, which the man under the canopy had done.  There were other men surrounding him at times and chanting as they danced their way to and up the steps to the cathedral temple.

There were all sorts of vendors around the cave entrance as well as this giant image of the Hindu monkey god Hanuman. 

I don't know who this goddess is.

Connie had one hand painted in a henna design because....well, because she's Connie, always trying new things.

Another highlight of our visit was the Petronas Towers, the tallest twin towers in the world, which are very beautiful at night.

We enjoyed shopping and dining there, especially having dinner by the musical fountain and watching the colorful light show.

We also shopped at some of the colorful local markets.

We took a tour to the seaport of Melaka (known as Malacca by Westerners), where we saw the ruins of a Portuguese fortress...

The hilltop ruins of St. Paul's Church....

And Chinese temples.

There are many different forms of trasportation in southeast Asia, but Melaka has the most colorful I've seen so far.

We met Susie from Santa Cruz on this tour, and she joined us in our meanderings around the city.

When we returned to Kuala Lumpur, the three of us went to Little India and enjoyed a fabulous dinner at an Indian vegetarian restaurant.

I won't say that Malaysia is my favorite place in southeast Asia, but it has a very interesting multi-ethnic culture and history, and it's a country that has experienced steady economic growth in the last decades.  It's also the first Islamic country I've visited.

Connie left for home last night and I miss her already.  Our friendship deepened during these 17 days we spent together, and it is these times I spend with new friends I've made on this journey that will keep the experience vibrant in my memory.