You know you’re alive when you’re in India. It simply has to be the most vibrant place on earth. The scenes on the streets are a feast for the eyes—nonstop near-neon in yards and yards of textiles that wrap the body without so much as a button or a pin.
No need for big box sttores. Everything is in markets on the street. Merchandise is bought and sold in a hectic environment that has pedestrians evading tuk tuks and bicycles, motorbikes and cars. It’s a frenetic dance to the tunes of beeps and everybody seems to know the steps.
The images below are from the streets of New Delhi, Varanasi, Jaipur, Udaipur and Mumbai. Enjoy the rainbow of life that is India.
One of the things I had hoped to see in northern India was a Bengal tiger. Since we were spending two days in Ranthambore National Park, famous for its tigers and one of the best locations in India to see them, I had high hopes. But alas, the elusive predator remained just that for us, but the other half of our group of eight did see one on their game drive in a different part of the park.
The park is forested, hilly terrain and quite dusty due to minimum rainfall. Visitors may observe other wildlife such as leopards, hyenas, wild cats, reptiles and birds. The park also has deer and antelope, AKA the tiger buffet. We saw many deer and antelope, a crocodile and a leopard, the latter of which was a nice consolation prize for missing the tiger. And then there were the show offs. The peacock is the national bird of India and a common denizen of the park
While an Indian safari can’t compare to an African safari, it was fun to see natural India after spending time in hectic, chaotic, noisy cities where we had come from. The safari operates between October and June, and is closed during monsoon season.
I’m not prone to posting a raft of pictures of my hotel, but I’m making an exception for the Taj Lake Palace in in the middle of a lake in Udaipur, India, because Condé Nast ranks as one of the best hotels in the world, and who am I to argue with Condé Nast? It was a royal palace built by Maharana Jagat Singh II and completed in 1746 Over the years, it’s changed from the official summer residence of the royal family to a museum, and finally a hotel in 1963. To reach the hotel, you arrive by boat from the hotel’s private dock. Only hotel guests are allowed to come over. Not even our guide is allowed on the boat. By now we are a bit of a disheveled group of eight. I’m surprised we were allowed on the boat. Lol take a look at this lavish place.
We wrapped up our journey Down Under in Auckland on the North Island of New Zealand. It’s known as the City of Sails. With a population of 1.6 million people, more than 500,000 sailboats and yachts in various sizes are anchored and moored at marinas in the city—more vessels per capita than anywhere else in the world. With the Tasman Sea to the west and the Hauraki Gulf to the east, Auckland has plenty of access to the water. Also, Auckland has several large commercial and container harbors, as well as multiple large marinas and yacht harbors. Fifty-three volcanoes shape the city, so it’s a hilly affair, which can be a bit of a challenge for a flatlander from Florida. Better call Uber.
It’s a multicultural city, drawing the largest Polynesian population in the world. And the Māori culture is evident in its museums and in design elements throughout the city, including on our waitress’s manicure at dinner.
Side note: Tom and I sailed in to Auckland Harbor 14 years ago aboard the MS Queen Victoria. He mistakenly left his glasses in Tonga, the previous port, and thanks to the tenacity of our good friend Luisa, whom we met on board, a new pair of perfectly-fitting transition-lens spectacles awaited him upon our arrival.
Here’s a taste of Auckland today. Take special notice of the red sailing vessel, Steinlager 2, winner of the 1989-90 Whitbread round-the-world race. I saw her moored in the harbor. I didn’t know what she was, but I knew she was special so I shot a few pictures and then looked her up on the internet where I found a gorgeous picture of her under sail.
I challenge you to say Whakarewarewa three times–or even once. However it’s pronounced, it’s a Living Māori Village in a geothermal landscape in Rotorua on the South Island. Our guide there was a direct descendant of the Whakarewarewa Māori, New Zealand’s indigenous people. Their facial tattoos are deeply spiritual, and can have a range of meanings, such as family, prosperity, travel, strength, career path and more. The village features a job training program for young people to further their cultural identity and give them skills for the future. Students serve a three-year apprenticeship where they learn to carve traditional Māori totems and other items, and weavings using traditional methods.
The village’s stunning features are the natural geothermal resources, including the Pōhutu Geyser, boiling mud-pools, steam vents and bubbling pools. We concluded our visit with a haka, where Māori warriors greet the chosen leader from our group In a manner meant to intimidate. After showing respect to the warriors, we were allowed to continue indoors for dinner and a cultural program.
A canceled morning flight from Queenstown to Rotorua in New Zealand was in our favor with a 10-hour wait time for a rescheduled evening flight. The agility and speed of our tour company, Odysseys Unlimited, was more than impressive. Quite quickly, a motor coach magically appeared to carry 21 of us from the airport to a gondola ride up to lunch at a mountain-top restaurant with panoramic views.
With the remainder of the afternoon to fill, Odysseys arranged for a 21-passenger mountain bus (how’d they do that?) to take us on a one-way hairpin road through The Remarkable Mountains to view movie scenes shot in Skippers Canyon. Think Lord of the Rings, among Dozens of others.
This region of the South Island is the site of the 1862 gold rush and where believers still pan for gold (and find a nugget or two) in the Shotover River. It was spectacular, and we would’ve missed it had our flight not been canceled. Making delicious lemonade out of lemons!
Low-hanging clouds floated over Queenstown in New Zealand as we boarded the shuttle for the ride to the Kawarua Gorge Suspension Bridge. “It’s a 30-minute drive to Kawarua,” the driver said to the dozen or so passengers, “so you’ve got time to think about it.”
We were headed to the birthplace of bungy jumping. The folks on the shuttle were going to take the 141-ft. plunge. I would be a spectator. I was amused when my son fastened his seatbelt. Really? You’re concerned about safety?
It was cold. It was drizzling. I was back in my puffer coat. This is crazy. Instead of stopping him, I was there to video him. Mercifully for my cardiovascular system, he didn’t prolong things by hesitating. He just took the plunge over the roiling Kawarua River. Here it is, all 2 min. 46 sec. of it.
We got a good look at the landscape as we drove south from Christchurch to Mount Cook and Mount Cook to Milford Sound via Queenstown. The spring grass was emerald green, and well-fed grazers munched at the lower elevations. As we motored along, we stopped in small town cafés for lunch (some towns were barely a crossroads) and got to see how the locals enjoy their meals out in rural New Zealand. The atmosphere was always cozy and casual. Nice to be away from big, impersonal chain restaurants.
I really had no idea about the Southern Alps range in New Zealand. The range of mountains comprises 2,122 named peaks extending 310 miles, nearly the length of the island, from Nelson down to Milford Sound. The highest peak is Mount Cook, at 12,218 ft., where I spent my birthday at The Hermitage Hotel, marveling at the rugged landscape outside my balcony.
Continuing on our overland journey, we arrived at Milford Sound and boarded a sightseeing boat. The thousand waterfalls were running as we sailed through the fjords. They were running because it was raining. Unlucky folks who come all this way to see them and find a sunny day, may nary well see a trickle as they plow the fjords to the Tasman Sea. In fact, Milford is one of the wettest places in earth, with an average of 182 rainfall days per year. It was a bitter wind on the water, but I had done my homework and came prepared. Two pair of socks, jeans, a cashmere sweater layered under a heavier sweater and a zippered fleece and a puffer coat. Plus a warm hat and scarf, gloves and a hood. No way would I let a little weather stop me from photographing this cathedral of rock, rainforest and water. It was 10 hours round trip from our Queenstown hotel. This is the very wilds of New Zealand’s South Island. It doesn’t get any better than this if you love nature.
As author Bill Bryson wrote in “In a Sunburned Country,” Australia “has more things that will kill you than anywhere else.” Besides deadly snakes and spiders and jellyfish, to name a few, Oz has its share of friendly furry creatures and beautiful birds, too. And feathered friends are in abundance. To see these animals it’s best to go to an animal park. The empty vastness of Oz would have you forever searching for its fauna. We saw reptiles at the Alice Springs Reptile Center in the Outback, birds and mammals at Featherdale Wildlife Park in Sydney, and butterflies in the Kuranda Butterfly Sanctuary in the northeast part of the country.
Fair warning: There are two pictures of snakes at the end of the photo scroll, photos #15 and #16, so proceed with caution if you have an aversion to snakes.
On June 28, 2007, the Sydney Opera House was included on the UNESCO World Heritage List, placing it alongside the Taj Mahal, the ancient Pyramids of Egypt and the Great Wall of China as one of the most outstanding places on Earth. Quite familiar with its exterior, which I had admired from the MS Queen Victoria when she was moored across the harbor in 2009, I toured the inside this time. I knew the interior would be interesting, but simply put, the Sydney Opera House took my breath away.
The engineering behind the architecture is on full display at every turn. Look up. Look down. Look around. You are wrapped in angles, curves and shadows on a large scale. The iconic Australian structure celebrated its 50th anniversary in October 2023. Queen Elizabeth II presided over its opening in 1973.
The design was awarded to Danish architect Jørn Utzon in 1957, besting designs submitted by 233 architects world-wide. The design was a major challenge for engineers working on the plan. The sculptural shells were sketched as sails soaring over the venue’s auditorium in the harbor by the Tasman Sea; but the design proved impractical to build. The project team spent four years trying out different solutions. The work saw some of the earliest use of computers for building design, as engineers worked out the complex forces the shells would have to cope with. Eventually, Utzon’s vision for how to bring his design to fruition clashed with required modifications, and he was forced to resign in the middle of construction, having never seen his design completed. A major flaw in the design, to my mind, was the absence of elevators. There are staircases galore in the massive house, whose tallest sail measures 22 stories high. An elevator was retrofitted a few years ago.
We can’t talk about the opera house without talking about the shells that comprise the roof. Tiles were placed face down in one of 26 chevron shaped beds each with a base shaped to match the curve of the roof. In total, there are 1,056,006 glazed white granite tiles on the roof. Utzon would remark that the tiles “were a major item in the building.” They were designed to be self-cleaning by rainwater.
The opera house sees over 1,500 performances every year, attended by more than 1.2 million people. More than 8 million people visit the building annually with 350,000 taking a guided tour of the building, as we did. The house is home to the Opera Australia, the Sydney Theatre Company and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. As well as a 2,679-seat concert hall, it also stages concerts, ballets and even stand-up comedians in three main theaters and a studio theater. Arnold Schwarzenegger won his final Mr. Olympia body building title in the Concert Hall in 1980.
There is a court for outdoor productions as well as restaurants, cafes and bars. From the immense walls of glass and from the alfresco restaurant, one views downtown Sydney, the harbor and the Harbor Bridge, all in one sweep of the eye. Let’s take a look!