Missing you guys and wishing we were at 'Copia today.  Sort of.  But we returned from our trip very late last night and we are 'way too jet-lagged to have made a trip to Madison today!

See you all next year!  Hope you had a great time!   

Spartan2 and Spartan1 (just back from "Down Under")

knafelc wrote on Mar 11^th, 2012 at 1:20pm:


Jeff,

It was nice to meet you, SunCatcher & others I had not really met before.  It was also neat to reconnect with so many familiar folks with whom I have shared so many great times and special places... and with whom I hope share plenty more.

Thanks to Scott & to Darrel for setting up our gatherings!

Jimbo   

Great gathering, as always!  Honestly if it weren't for the lunch and dinner get-togethers, I doubt I'd bother to make the trip.

It really is the best part of the event, getting to know more of you. At the end of one program it was neat to make introductions for people who had been conversing on here for a long time.

dd--here is an abbreviated trip report.

Jet-lagged now and trying to sort through far too many photo files.  Don't figure to go there again, so I shot a lot, bracketed more than usual, and now have a lot of garbage to delete, duplicates to delete, and decisions to make about which one to keep.  It will take DAYS!   

We did a 16-day luxury cruise on Oceania Lines and it was very comfortable, although the weather was a bit nasty for a couple of the days when we were crossing the Tasman Sea.  The day we were to anchor and tender in at Akaroa we ended up not being able to go ashore, and we sailed away early, as the anchor wouldn't even hold.  Lots of 'rock and roll' that night!   

We had a good time.  Beautiful sights, fun experiences.  We particularly enjoyed having the chance to see "The Magic Flute" in the Sydney Opera House, and some lovely wineries, a kiwi farm, a train trip out of Dunedin in NZ, and of course sailing along the fjords in New Zealand.  New Zealand is a beautiful country.  I might like to go back there if there were a way to get there besides those brutal airline flights!!

The end of February/first of March is the beginning of Autumn down there, and we might have enjoyed a bit warmer weather overall.  It was hot in Sydney when we arrived, quite warm in Melbourne, and from there on we needed jackets most of the time.  That was a surprise.

Our ports of call were Sydney, Melbourne, Hobart (Tasmania), Dunedin (NZ), Akaroa (aborted), Wellington, Napier, a great cruise past the active volcano, "White Island", Tauranga, and Auckland.